UC-NRLF 


L  B 


17    Slfl 


E  DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 


Studies  in  Educational  Measurements  in  Wisconsin 

Bulletin  No.   1 


A  Report  On 


The  Use  of  Some 
Standard  Tests 


For  1916-17 


By 

W.   W.   THEISEN 
Supervisor  of  Educational  Measurements 


Issued  by 

C.  P.  CARY 

State  Superintendent 


MAOIfiO.V,    TVlH 

1918 


GIFT  ©F 


A  REPORT  ON  THE 

USE  OF  SOME  STANDARD 

TESTS  FOR  1916-17 


BY 
W.  W.^THEISEN 

Supervlsorof  Educational  Measurements 


ISSUED  BY 
C.  P.  GARY 

State  Superintendent 


STATE  DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

MADISON,  WISCONSIN 

1918 


EJ 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 


Page 

INTRODUCTION ->  5 

CHAPTER  I. — Spelling 11 

The  Test 13 

The  Returns 14 

The  Results 15 

The  Results  in  Rural  Schools 20 

The  Number  of  Counties  that  Reached 

Ayres   Standard   22 

The  Results  in  State  Graded  Schools-  23 

The  Results  in  High  Schools  and  Cities  24 
The    Questionnaire    on    the    Course    of 

Study  in  Spelling 31 

The  Time  Devoted  to  Spelling 31 

The  Record  of  Two  Rural  Schools  in 

One  County 32 

The  Time  Devoted  to  Spelling  and  the 
Average  Spelling  Scores  in  Eight 

Counties    33 

Time    and    Average    Scores    in    Ten 

State  Graded  Schools 34 

Time  and  Average  Scores  in  Ten  High 

Schools  and  Cities  35 

The  Sources  of  Words  Used  in  Spelling  36 

The  Number  of  New  Words  Taught 38 

The  Total  Number  of  Words  to  Teach.  _  41 

The  Methods  Used  in  Teaching  Spelling  43 

Conclusions , 47 

Recommendations   48 

Some  Suggested  References  _  49 


. 

Table  of  Contents  3 

Page 

CHAPTER  II. — Arithmetic  51 

The  Achievement  of  Wisconsin  Children 

on  the  Woody  Tests 52 

Variation  Within  Grades 55 

The     Overlapping    of    Performances 

from  Grade  to  Grade 57 

The  Median  Scores 59 

Variation  by  Cities 60 

Why  do  Wisconsin  Schools  do  Well  in 
the   Lower   Grades   and   Fail   in   the 

Upper?    64 

Summary  and  Conclusions 68 

Some  Suggested  References 68 


CHAPTER  III. — Writing 71 

The  Returns 74 

The  Results  74 

The  Median  Performances 78 

How  Well  May  Wisconsin   Children 

be  Expected  to  Write? 80 

Variation  by  Schools 81 

The  Results  in  Speed 83 

The  Median  Scores  in  Speed 83 

Variation  in  Speed  of  Writing  Within 

Grades     85 

The  Relation  of  Speed  and  Quality 86 

Summary  and  Conclusions 88 

Some  Suggested  References 89 


•• 


CHAPTER  IV. — Composition .  91 

The  Trabue  Scale 91 

The  Median  Scores 97 

The  Variation  Within  Grades 99 

The    Kind    of    Work    Which    Teachers 

Demand 101 

Some  Suggested  References 103 


456642 


4  Table  of  Contents 

Page 

CHAPTER  V. — Reading 105 

The  Median  Scores  by  Cities 108 

The  Distribution  of  Scores 111 

What  Elements  in  the  Teaching  of  Read- 
ing or  in  the  Reading  Needs  of  Chil- 
dren Contribute  to  Differences  in  their 

Reading  Acquirements? 114 

Some  Suggested  References 118 


INTRODUCTION 

The  following  pages  aim  to  present  some  of  the  findings  ar- 
rived at  through  the  application  of  standard  tests  and  scales  to 
the  measurement  of  results  in  school  subjects  in  Wisconsin  for 
the  school  year  1916-17.  It  is  in  no  way  to  be  considered  as  a 
final  report  on  the  subjects  included.  Its  conclusions  must  be 
regarded  as  tentative  only. 

The  work  in  standard  tests  and  measurements  instituted  by 
the  state  department  of  education  during  the  past  year  has  as 
its  primary  aim  the  improvement  of  instruction.  Its  purpose 
is  to  discover,  first,  in  objective  terms,  the  degree  of  success 
achieved  in  the  teaching  of  school  subjects,  and  second,  to  point 
out  possible  means  of  improvement. 

To  measure  the  achievement  of  pupils  on  a  state-wide  scale 
is  an  undertaking  requiring  no  mean  amount  of  labor.  It  is 
of  course  physically  impossible  for  any  one  person  to  conduct 
standard  tests  in  any  large  proportion  of  the  schools  of  the 
state  even  in  a  few  subjects.  This  has  made  it  necessary  to 
depend  in  no  small  measure  upon  the  cooperation  of  others. 
Were  all  or  even  a  large  proportion  of  the  teachers,  principals, 
supervisors,  and  superintendents  in  the  state  trained  in  the  su- 
pervision of  instruction  through  standard  tests  and  scales,  it 
would  be  a  relatively  simple  matter  to  ascertain  the  achievement 
of  the  children  of  the  state  in  a  number  of  subjects.  In  the 
absence  of  any  such  favorable  conditions,  no  small  portion  of  the 
time  of  the  supervisor  in  charge  of  educational  measurements 
has  of  necessity  been  devoted  to  the  training  of  teachers,  prin- 
cipals, supervisors,  and  superintendents  in  the  field.  To  reach 
larger  numbers  in  less  time,  this  type  of  activity  has  been  con- 
fined in  the  main  to  cities  employing  large  numbers  of  teachers. 
The  tentative  Wisconsin  standards  of  achievement  in  a  number 
of  subjects  given  in  the  pages  following  are  consequently  made 
up  of  figures  representing  pupils'  scores  in  cities,  except  for  the 
tests  in  spelling  and  handwriting,  which  were  given  in  a  large 


The  'Vie  :ojf  So'ihe.  Standard  Tests 

.  - .  .  -  •  *» 

-  •      "    ,;  -    •  ,kt  r*\A* 
number  of  rural  ancl  graded  schools  as  well,  through  the  coop- 
eration and  assistance  of  those  in  charge  of  these  schools. 

The  standards  proposed  in  this  report  are  to  be  regarded  as 
tentative  only.  As  teachers  and  superintendents  become  better 
trained  in  the  application  of  tests  and  scales,  and  as  more  and 
more  schools  are  included  in  the  returns,  the  reliability  of  the 
results  obtained  will  be  increased.  The  present  proposed  stand- 
ards will  have  served  a  useful  purpose  if  they  tend  to  increase 
the  accuracy  with  which  pupils'  products  are  judged,  if  they 
assist  teachers  in  determining  to  a  larger  extent  the  degree  of 
their  teaching  success,  and  if  they  suggest  possible  directions 
for  improvement. 

For  those  who  are  not  fully  acquainted  with  the  needs  and 
possibilities  of  standard  tests  and  scales  in  bringing  about  im- 
provements it  may  be  well  to  indicate  briefly  some  of  the  ways 
in  which  they  are  being  employed.  In  the  first  place,  the  meas- 
urement of  school  products  through  the  application  of  standard 
tests  and  scales  represents  an  effort  to  measure  success  objectively 
in  terms  of  the  results  achieved  by  the  children.  This  removes 
two  serious  limitations  to  the  older  method  of  measuring  results 
by  examination.  The  two  limitations  of  the  older  method  are 
these:  (1)  teachers'  judgments  differ  so  materially  as  to  what 
should  be  expected  of  a  given  grade  of  pupils  that  a  fourth  or 
a  fifth  grade  standard  of  work  does  not  mean  the  same  thing 
in  two  schools;  (2)  teachers  differ  in  their  judgment  of  the 
worth  of  children's  products.  Standard  measurements  are  be- 
ing utilized  to  fix  more  definitely  the  degree  of  achievement  or 
standard  to  be  reached  in  successive  grades  and  to  increase  the 
reliability  with  which  children's  products  are  judged. 

The  measurement  of  achievements  in  school  subjects  affords 
a  means  of  discovering  certain  facts  directly  related  to  the  super- 
visory and  administrative  program,  and  of  evaluating  the  teach- 
ing methods  employed.  It  is  to  the  teacher  that  standard  tests 
and  scales  are  most  helpful  when  properly  used.  This  is  a  fact 
as  yet  realized  by  few  teachers.  Progressive  teachers  and  su- 
pervisors are  making  use  of  them  to  measure  the  attainments 
of  classes  in  terms  of  some  definite  standard,  as  for  example,  to 
discover  whether  certain  sixth  grade  pupils  exceed  or  fall  short 
of  the  standard  of  25  on  the  Woody  subtraction  test.  They  em- 
ploy them  to  discover  the  range  and  variation  of  the  perform- 


Introduction  7 

ances  of  the  individuals  in  a  class,  the  seriousness  of  the  over- 
lapping of  performances  from  grade  to  grade,  the  progress  from 
year  to  year  or  over  some  other  given  interval. 

The  possibilities  of  standard  tests  as  diagnosing  instruments 
are  just  beginning  to  dawn  upon  many  teachers  and  supervisors. 
They  are  being  employed  by  some  to  aid  in  diagnosing  class, 
group,  and  individual  teaching  needs,  as  for  example,  to  find 
out  how  seriously  progress  in  arithmetic  is  being  affected  by 
such  matters  as  lack  of  facility  in  borrowing,  pointing  off,  mul- 
tiplication or  division  of  cipher  quantities,  inverting  fractional 
divisors,  or  failure  to  estimate  answers ;  or  how  progress  in  his- 
tory or  geography  is  affected  by  inability  to  comprehend  the 
thought  of  what  is  read ;  or  how  success  in  spelling  is  hindered 
by  failure  to  acquire  the  habit  of  analyzing  words  for  their  diffi- 
cult parts ;  or  how  inability  to  write  a  good  composition  is  to  be 
traced  to  failure  to  exercise  the  imagination,  to  think  coherently, 
or  to  faulty  mechanics.  Standard  tests  and  scales  thus  become 
a  means  of  measuring  the  success  of  the  methods  of  teaching 
used.  They  stimulate  teachers  to  a  more  careful  study  of  aims, 
methods,  results,  and  class  and  individual  teaching  needs.  Su- 
pervisors find  them  especially  serviceable  as  time  savers,  enabling 
them  to  make  more  accurate  observations  of  certain  phases  of 
the  teaching  in  much  less  time  than  when  each  classroom  must 
be  visited  one  or  more  times.  They  apply  standard  tests  to 
measure  the  success  of  different  methods,  of  method  versus  no 
method,  and  of  different  courses  of  study.  The  results  of  the 
tests  and  the  factors  involved  furnish  a  basis  for  discussion  be- 
tween teacher  and  supervisor,  or  between  the  teacher  and  the 
pupil  or  the  parent.  They  enable  the  supervisor  to  compare 
one  school  with  another,  or  the  school  system  with  other  school 
systems. 

From  an  administrative  point  of  view,  standard  tests  and 
scales  are  being  used  to  establish  a  more  equitable  basis  for  pro- 
motion, to  determine  the  desirability  of  promoting  or  trans- 
ferring individual  pupils,  or  of  promoting  them  in  certain  sub- 
jects. This  is  frequently  done  in  spelling,  where  under  an  ar- 
rangement of  parallel  programs,  each  pupil  takes  spelling  in 
whatever  grade  most  nearly  fits  his  ability  to  profit  by  the  spell- 
ing teaching.  Again,  standard  tests  are  used  to  locate  unclas- 
sified pupils.  The  results  furnish  a  basis  in  some  schools  for 


8  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

sectioning  pupils  for  purposes  of  instruction  into  slow,  average, 
and  rapid  advancement  sections,  or  of  placing  them  in  special 
classes.  Some  schools  in  Wisconsin  and  elsewhere  are  begin- 
ning to  employ  standard  tests  for  purposes  of  preliminary  di- 
agnosis of  pupils  suspected  of  mental  incapacity,  or  for  select- 
ing pupils  to  be  recommended  for  more  complete  mental  test- 
ing. Standard  tests  are  being  used  by  others  to  determine  the 
advisability  of  certain  eliminations,  additions,  or  changes  in  the 
course  of  study  or  in  textbooks,  either  for  the  school  as  a  whole 
or  for  certain  groups  of  pupils.  Many  schools,  for  example,  are 
finding  it  advisable  as  a  result  of  test  scores  to  omit  many  words 
previously  included  in  spelling  lists,  to  place  the  major  emphasis 
upon  words  commonly  used  but  misspelled,  and  to  provide  a 
more  intelligent  arrangement  of  review  exercises  in  spelling  and 
arithmetic.  In  some  schools  the  test  results  furnish  a  basis  for 
determining  the  time  to  be  allotted  to  a  given  subject.  Unusu- 
ally proficient  classes  or  individuals  may  be  excused  for  a  time 
from  regular  spelling  or  writing  periods,  or  again  it  may  be 
found  that  certain  classes  or  individuals  could  profitably  give 
more  time  to  thought  reading.  Others  discover  that  it  is  advis- 
able to  restrict  the  time  given  to  subjects  yielding  but  a  small 
return  on  the  time  investment. 

One  other  significant  application  of  standard  tests  is  that 
made  by  the  superintendent  in  reporting  upon  the  success  of  the 
schools  to  the  board  of  education  or  to  the  community.  The 
results  furnish  tangible  evidence  of  the  successful  achievements 
or  shortcomings  of  the  schools,  and  afford  a  basis  for  discussion 
with  the  boards  as  to  the  need  of  additional  expenditures  for 
textbooks,  supplies,  and  teachers'  or  supervisors'  salaries.  Some 
superintendents  are  still  unnecessarily  timid  about  applying 
standard  tests  lest  it  may  appear  that  their  schools  are  not  up 
to  standard  or  at  least  not  up  to  the  point  of  efficiency  that  the 
public  has  been  led  to  believe.  That  this  is  a  false  attitude 
for  a  superintendent  to  take,  thoughtful  school  people  will 
readily  agree.  If  the  schools  really  are  superior,  standard  meas- 
ures and  tests  will  reveal  the  fact.  If  they  are  deficient  at  any 
point  the  condition,  when  recognized  by  the  superintendent, 
can  be  remedied. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  report  contained  in  the  pages  fol- 
lowing the  writer  is  indebted  to  the  many  superintendents,  prin- 


Introduction  9 

cipals  and  teachers  of  the  schools  cooperating  in  giving  the  tests. 
He  is  especially  grateful  to  Miss  Elizabeth  A.  Ahern,  statistical 
assistant,  who  made  many  of  the  tabulations  and  computations ; 
to  Dr.  B.  R.  Buckingham  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  for 
many  valuable  criticisms  and  suggestions;  and  to  Mrs.  Cecile 
White  Flemming  of  the  State  Department  of  Education  for  a 
critical  reading  of  the  manuscript. 


CHAPTER  I 

SPELLING 


Opportunity  was  given  to  each  county,  to  a  number  of  state 
graded  schools,  high  schools,1  and  cities  to  participate  in  a  test 
in  spelling.  The  purpose  of  the  test  was  (1)  to  throw  light  on 
the  spelling  proficiency  of  Wisconsin  children,  and  the  probable 
causes  of  weakness;  and  (2)  to  stimulate  interest  in,  and  efforts 
toward  improvement  in  teaching,  through  the  scientific  study  of 
results.  The  test  selected  from  the  Ayres  list  of  1000  common 
words  was  uniform  in  all  schools.  In  rural  and  state  graded 
schools  and  in  the  case  of  several  high  schools,  the  test  was  sent 
out  from  the  office  of  the  state  superintendent  and  was  given 
under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  principals,  supervisors  or 
superintendents  of  these  schools.  The  test  in  most  city  schools 
and  in  a  number  of  high  schools  was  given  during  the  fall  of 
1916  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  supervisor  of  edu- 
cational measurements.  In  rural  and  state  graded  schools  the 
test  was  given  near  the  close  of  the  first  semester. 

The  following  letter  was  sent  to  each  county  superintendent. 

Office  of  the  State  Superintendent 

Madison,  Wis.,  Dec.  19,  1916. 

We  will  appreciate  it  very  much  if  you  will  cooperate  with  us  to  the 
extent  of  giving  the  accompanying  spelling  test  in  your  schools.  If 
you  do  not  give  it  in  all  schools  please  arrange  to  have  it  given  in  the 
first  fifteen  schools;  taking  alphabetically  the  surnames  of  the  teach- 
ers in  your  county. 

We  enclose  directions  for  giving  the  test  and  scoring  the  results,  a 


1  Graded  schools  having-  two  or  more  departments  and  not  organized  as 
free  high  school  districts  are  commonly  organized  under  the  law  as 
"state  graded  schools."  Those  of  two  departments  are  known  as  sec- 
ond-class graded  schools  and  those  of  three  or  more  as  first-class. 
\This  organization  is  common  in  villages.  The  term  "high  school"  as 
used  here  refers  to  the  elementary  grades  in  schools  of  cities  and  towns 
organized  as  district  free  high  schools.  For  the  most  part  they  include 
cities  of  1500-3000  population. 


12 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


copy  of  which  IB  to  be  sent  to  this  office.  The  test  is  to  be  given  with- 
out previous  study.  In  order  to  make  results  comparable  it  should  be 
given  before  January  13. 

We  are  enclosing  also  a  questionnaire  calling  for  certain  data  on 
the  course  of  instruction  in  spelling  in  your  schools. 
Yours  very  truly, 
Supervisor  of  Educational  Measurements. 

The  questionnaire  sought  to  discover  certain  facts  as  to  the 
course  of  study  and  organization  of  the  work  in  spelling  and 
the  relation  of  these  facts  to  the  results  obtained  in  the  test. 


Questions  to  be  Answered  With  Respect  to  The  Course  of  Study  in  Spelling 


II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

1.  How  many  minutes  per  week  are  de- 
voted to  spelling 

2.  What    is  the   relative   proportion  of 
time  devoted  to  oral  and    written 
spelling  

3.  How  many  new  words  are  taught  per 
week  

4.  What  is  the   source    of    the    words 
used.    (Check  V) 

a.  Spelling  text  

b.  Reading  text  

c.  Other  sources  

5.  What  proportion  of  words  is  derived 
from  each  of  the  above  sources 

a.  Spelling  text  *. 

b.  Reading  text  

c.  Other  sources  

Spelling 


13 


THE  TEST 

The  words  selected  for  the  test  were  arranged  in  three  groups 
of  twenty-five  words  each.  The  words  for  grades  III  and  IV 
were  selected  from  the  L  list  of  Ayres  scale,  those  for  grades  V 
and  VI  from  the  Q  list  and  those  for  grades  VII  and  VIII  from 
the  U  list. 

Ayres  Spelling  Words 


3  &  4 

catch1 

warm 

clothing 

able 

suit 

watch 

fell 

buy 

walk 

soap 

small 

summer 

express 

lesson 

father 

table 

talk 

right 

road 

next 

four 

power 

because 

country 

another 


Grades 

5  &  6 
sometimes 
engage 
terrible 
period 
employ 
select 
firm 
convict 
command 
crowd 
publish 
term 
relative 
entire 
measure 
serve 

remember 
effort 
due 

running 
position 
ledge 
primary 
Saturday 
information 


7  &  8 
meant 
earliest 
distinguish 
consideration 
assure 
probably 
foreign 
responsible 
beginning 
difficulty 
finally 
develop 
issue 
material 
mere 
senate 
respectfully 
agreement 
unfortunate 
majority 
elaborate 
citizen 
necessary 
divide 
receive 


These  words  are  selected  from  lists  that  have  been  standard- 
ized. According  to  Ayres  each  word  in  any  one  list  presents 
approximately  equal  difficulty  for  children  of  a  given  grade. 
The  averages  which  children  in  Wisconsin  may  be  expected  to 
reach  on  any  given  list  are  those  attained  by  70,000  children  in 
84  cities  throughout  the  United  States.  The  average  per  cent 
expected  in  each  grade  when  the  pupils  have  completed  just 
half  of  the  work  of  the  grade  is  as  follows : 


Grades         III 
Av.  % 73 


IV 

88 


V 
73 


VI 

84 


VII 
73 


VIII 

84 


1  Through   an   error  in    typing   this    word   was    given    as    cash    instead    of 
'catch."     It  is  not  probable  that  this  has  made  the  test  more  difficult. 


14  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

Instructions  for  giving  the  test 

The  following  uniform  instructions  were  given  to  all  schools. 

Paper — See  that  all  children  are  provided  with  paper  of  uniform 
size,  preferably  of  large  tablet  size. 

Giving  the  test.  1.  Have  each  pupil  write  his  name,  age,  grade, 
school,  whether  boy  or  girl,  and  teacher's  name  at  top  of  sheet. 

2.  Pronounce  each  word  distinctly,  but  do  not  syllabicate,  or  give 
phonetic  sounds.    Use  each  word  in  a  sentence  immediately  after  you 
have  pronounced  the  word. 

3.  Scoring  papers — Mark   all   misspelled   words.     All   words   written 
over  thus — se — are  to  be  counted  wrong.1    Mark  the  number  correct  in 
the  upper  right  hand  corner  of  each  paper.     Place  the  names  of  the 
children  alphabetically  on  a  sheet  by  grades,  and  enter  opposite  each 
name  the  number  of  words  correctly  spelled.     Place  the  papers  in  a 
bundle  with  this  sheet  on  top.     Forward  the  papers   to  the  superin- 
tendent's office  as  soon  as  possible. 

THE  EETURNS 

Returns  were  received  from  thirty-nine  counties  aggregating 
1173  one  room  rural  schools,  from  132  state  graded  schools,  and 
from  35  high  and  city  school  districts.  Returns  were  received 
from  a  few  additional  counties  and  state  graded  schools  which 
could  not  be  used  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  scores  for  each  grade 
were  not  entered  separately.  A  few  reported  averages  only. 
These  were  likewise  of  necessity  omitted  in  making  up  the  com- 
bined scores  for  the  state.  While  it  was  suggested  to  county 
superintendents  that  fifteen  schools  (i.  e.  one  room  rural  schools) 
would  be  a  sufficient  number  it  was  gratifying  to  note  that  some 
gave  the  test  in  every  school  in  the  county.  In  a  number  of 
cases  'the  results  within  the  county  were  made  the  subject  for 
discussion  at  institutes  held  during  the  year.  This  attitude  upon 
the  part  of  superintendents  and  principals  can  hardly  fail  to  re- 
sult in  an  improvement  in  spelling  in  many  parts  of  the  state. 

The  returns  which  were  recorded  in  usable  form  represent  in 
the  aggregate  36,564  children  distributed  as  follows : 

Rural   15,825 

State  graded 7,465 

High  and  city 13,111 

1  Possibly  a  more  satisfactory  instruction  would  have  been  to  mark 
all  illegible  answers  wrong.  This  was  discovered  after  the  test  had 
been  given  in  a  few  schools,  but  it  was  deemed  best  to  preserve  uni- 
formity in  the  directions  to  all  schools. 


Spelling 


15 


THE  RESULTS 

The  results  are  not  particularly  encouraging,  a  fact  which  may 
be  judged  from  the  average  scores  for  each  class  of  schools 
shown  in  Table  I.  They  are  in  fact  an  indictment  of  the  teach- 
ing of  spelling  in  Wisconsin.  The  average  scores  attained  in 
each  class  of  schools,  the  combined  score  for  all  classes  of  schools 
and  Ay  res  expected  average  may  be  seen  in  Table  I.  The  aver- 
age score  for  each  grade  and  Ayres  standard  are  represented 
in  graphic  form  in  Figure  I. 

TABLE  1. —  The  Average  Ptr  cent  of  Words  Correct  in  Each  Clas*  of  Schools 


Number 

Ill 

4IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

children 

tested 

35  cities  and  high  schools  .... 

52 

74 

55 

72 

61 

73 

13,111 

132  graded  schools  

64 

80 

59 

74 

67 

78 

7,465 

39  counties  

64 

79 

60 

71 

63 

73 

15,  825 

(1173  rural  schools) 

Combined    average  

59 

78 

58 

1?, 

63 

74 

36,401 

Ayres  standard  

73 

RR 

73 

R4 

73 

84 

Note:  It  should  be  recalled  that  in  most  of  the  cities  the  test  was 
given  during  the  fall  months  of  the  first  semester.  All  but  8  of  the 
35  cities  are  conducted  on  an  annual  promotion  basts.  From  these  facts 
it  is  estimated  that  the  children  in  rural  and  state  graded  schools  had 
completed  on  the  average  nearly  one  month  more  of  the  year's  work 
than  children  in  cities.  Rural  and  state  graded  schools  should  be  ex- 
pected therefore  to  attain  an  average  score  approximately  2%  higher  in 
grades  three  and  four  and  1%  higher  in  the  remaining  grades. 

When  compared  with  Ayres'  averages  attained  by  children 
in  84  American  cities  Wisconsin  schools  appear  to  be  from  one- 
half  year  to  a  full  year  behind.  Children  in  cities  do  not  appear 
to  have  spelled  as  well  as  children  in  rural  and  state  graded 
schools.  In  tests  of  this  sort  some  errors  in  scoring  are  apt  to  be 
made.  It  is  assumed,  however,  that  as  many  papers  will  be 
marked  too  low  as  too  high.  In  that  event  the  average  is  neither 
raised  nor  lowered.  Unusual  care  was  taken  in  some  of  the  cities 
to  insure  accuracy  in  scoring.  City  scores  may  therefore  be 
considered  as  somewhat  more  accurate  than  for  other  classes  of 
schools.  There  is  little  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the  fig- 
ures for  rural  and  state  graded  schools  represent  greater  leniency 
in  marking. 


16 


TJie  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


A  question  may  be  raised  as  to  whether  the  scores  made  by 
our  children  are  a  reliable  measure  of  their  spelling  ability. 
Undoubtedly  more  reliable  results  could  be  obtained  by  testing 
several  times.  While  it  was  not  possible  to  do  this  estimates 
can  be  made.  By  employing  a  method  commonly  used  in  statis- 
tics one  may  compute  from  the  data  of  Table  2  the  chances  of 
making  higher  or  lower  scores  on  repeated  tests.1  By  this  meth- 


100 
90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 


_21LL 


••-  Average 


'or  Wisconsin  S 


chools 


Ayres  St indard 


rig  x    Average  Spelling  Score*  In  Eaoh  Grade  for  All  Schools 
Combined  Compared  with  Ayree  Standard 

od  the  writer  estimates  that  the  chances  are  even  that  a  truly 
representative  score  in  the  third  grade  would  not  be  above 
61.6%  or  below  56.8%  i.  e.  2.4%  higher  or  lower.  The  chances 
are  more  than  four  to  one  that  it  would  lie  between  64%  and 
54.4%  i.  e.  not  more  than  4.8%  higher  or  lower  than  the  present 
score  of  59.2%.  The  chances  are  more  than  twenty  to  one  that 
it  would  lie  between  66.3%  and  52.1%  i.  e.  not  more  than  7.2% 
higher  or  lower.  The  chances  are  even  that  the  true  score  will 
differ  less  than  2y2%  from  the  present  score  in  any  grade. 
From  these  facts  it  appears  that  no  matter  how  liberal  we  may 
care  to  be  Wisconsin  children  cannot  be  said  to  be  good  spellers. 
Why  children  in  Wisconsin  appear  to  be  poorer  spellers  than 


1  The  method  based  on  the  theory  of  normal  distribution  is  that  of 
computing  the  standard  deviation,  dividing  it  by  the  square  root  of  the 
number  of  children  and  multiplying  by  .6745.  The  formula  used  is  P.  E. 

S.   D. 
(probable   error)   =   .6745  —        r_Tne   standard  deviation    (S.   D.)    is   the 

Vn 

square  root  of  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the  differences  between  each 
individual  score  and  the  average.  The  S.  D.'s  in  terms  of  number  of 
words  spelled  by  grades  are:  III,  7.13;  IV,  5.55;  V,  6.76;  VI.  5.95;  VII, 
6.55;  VIII,  5.33.  The  corresponding  P.  E.'s  are:  .59,  .45,  .57,  .51,  .62  and 
.50  respectively.  To  convert  these  figures  to  terms  of  per  cent  multiply 
by  four  in  each  case.  Thus,  .59  X  4  =  2.36  or  roughly  2.4  used  in  the 
computation  a^ove. 


Spelling  17 

children  elsewhere  is  rather  difficult  to  discover.  We  in  Wiscon- 
sin are  certainly  not  willing  to  entertain  even  a  remote  idea  that 
Wisconsin  children  are  naturally  inferior  to  children  elsewhere 
in  ability  to  spell.  We  are  even  reluctant  to  admit  that  spelling 
is  not  as  well  taught  in  Wisconsin  as  elsewhere.  In  the  face  of 
the  facts,  however,  it  is  difficult  to  escape  the  latter  conviction. 
It  is  evident  that  two  things  will  be  necessary  (1)  a  careful  scru- 
tiny of  the  course  of  study  in  use,  (2)  an  examination  of  the 
methods  of  teaching  employed. 

One  other  factor  that  should  be  considered  is  the  reliability 
of  the  standards  established  by  Ayres.  The  words  used  in 
Ayres'  list  of  1,000  common  words  were  originally  given  as  tests 
in  sets  of  20  words  in  two  consecutive  grades  in  a  large  number 
of  cities.  Following  this  first,  test  Ayres  rearranged  the  words 
in  sets  of  20  and  gave  each  set  in  four  consecutive  grades.  The 
fact  that  all  of  the  words  used  were  not  carefully  tested  in  every 
grade  made  it  necessary  to  estimate  what  children  in  some  grades 
would  do  in  spelling  certain  words.  This  may  have  resulted  in 
setting  standards  that  are  too  high  in  some  cases.  Ayres  claims, 
however,  that  they  are  approximately  correct  if  as  many  as  10 
words  are  used  as  a  test.1  Further  evidence  in  support  of  the 
standards  was  obtained  in  the  course  of  the  Cleveland  survey, 
and  in  Baltimore  and  New  York  City.  Using  words  that  should 
be  spelled  by  73%  of  the  children  who  have  completed  one-half 
of  the  grade,  no  grade  in  Cleveland  was  found  to  be  more  than 
3%  below  or  above.2  Briggs  and  Bamberger  tested  among 
others  5,950  sixth  grade  children  in  New  York  City  and  Balti- 
more.8 The  words  used  included  all  of  those  given  to  Wisconsin 
children  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades.  By  recording  the  per 
cent  correct  for  each  individual  word  it  is  possible  to  determine 
from  their  report  the  average  for  the  25  selected  words  of  our 
test.  The  writer  has  computed  the  average  for  these  words  from 
their  data  and  finds  that  the  5,950  children  made  an  average  of 
89.5%.  These  children  were  tested  during  the  second  half  year 
of  the  grade  and  would  be  expected  to  reach  a  grade  of  approxi- 
mately 88  or  89%.  If  these  children  were  able  to  reach  Ayres 
standard  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  Wisconsin  children  in 
the  sixth  grade  should  not  have  made  a  better  record  than  72%. 


1  Ayres:     A  Measuring  Scale  for  Ability  in  Spelling,  p.  34. 
2Judd:     Measuring-  the  Work  of  the  Schools,  p.  87. 
3  School  anri    Society    Nov.  3.   1917. 


18 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  Ayres  makes  the  point  that 
a  test  of  words  which  should  be  spelled  by  73%  of  the  pupils  in- 
cludes words  varying  from  those  to  be  spelled  by  69%  to  those 
to  be  spelled  by  76%  of  the  pupils.  This  is  a  range  of  7%. 
73%  then  signifies  an  average  for  the  list.  It  is  possible  that  in 
choosing  the  words  for  our  tests  a  greater  proportion  of  the  more 
difficult  words  were  selected.  That  such  was  the  case  is  doubt- 
ful. The  figures  of  Briggs  and  Bamberger  indicate  that  our  di- 
vision between  easier  and  .more  difficult  words  for  grades  five  and 

TABLE  2. Distribution  of  pupils'  scores  according  to  the  number  of  words 

correctly  spelled 


List  L 

List  Q 

List  U 

Number 

Per  cent 

of  words 
correct 

of  words 
correct 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

0 

0 

112 

17 

61 

16 

16 

6 

1 

4 

146 

20 

104 

23 

38 

8 

2 

8 

131 

26 

148 

47 

60 

25 

3 

12 

163 

46 

155 

46 

64 

24 

4 

16 

167 

44 

145 

60 

89 

41 

5 

20 

173 

57 

197 

77 

100 

37 

6 

24 

222 

68 

199 

78 

99 

47 

7 

28 

179 

65 

202 

90 

111 

70 

8 

32 

213 

86 

227 

110 

153 

68 

9 

36 

238 

96 

259 

128 

152 

74 

10 

40 

228 

145 

262 

145 

162 

75 

11 

44 

216 

116 

260 

148 

212 

128 

12 

48 

251 

145 

246 

161 

231 

142 

13 

.   52 

243 

160 

255 

193 

205 

143 

14 

56 

269 

162 

301 

198 

245 

180 

15 

60 

283 

188 

309 

261 

267 

228 

16 

64 

295 

232 

299 

287 

296 

219 

17 

68 

286 

267 

332 

329 

283 

291 

18 

72 

323 

326 

322 

348 

313 

290 

19 

76 

323 

355 

291 

362 

311 

339 

20 

80 

342 

464 

331 

443 

324 

393 

21 

84 

332 

534 

324 

476 

340 

467 

22 

88 

369 

666 

292 

513 

330 

492 

23 

92 

413 

771 

326 

533 

270 

526 

24 

96 

354 

926 

293 

538 

239 

496 

25 

100 

357 

936 

235 

605 

159 

387 

Total. 

6,628 

6,918 

6,375 

6,215 

5,069 

5,196 

Average  per  cent 

correct 

59.2 

77.5 

57.6 

72.1 

63. 

74.2 

Average  numb'r  cor- 

rect   

14.8 

19.4 

14.4 

18. 

15.8 

18.6 

Median  number  cor- 

rect.. 

16.3 

21.7 

15.5 

20. 

17.1 

20.4 

Spelling 


19 


six  was  approximately  equal.  The  range,  however,  was  found 
to  be  greater  than  7%  as  given  by  Ayres.  The  easiest  word 
"sometimes"  was  spelled  correctly  by  97%  and  "information" 
the  most  difficult  one  by  78%.  But  even  though  our  selection 
in  some  grades  may  have  resulted  in  choosing  a  greater  number 
of  words  of  more  than  average  difficulty  it  can  scarcely  account 
for  differences  as  great  as  those  between  the  averages  attained 
by  Wisconsin  children  and  the  standards  set  by  Ayres. 

That  not  all  children  are  poor  spellers  may  be  seen  from  Table 
2  giving  the  distribution  of  scores  according  to  the  number  of 
words  correctly  spelled.  There  are  a  number  of  children  in  each 
grade  who  exceeded  the  expected  average  for  that  grade.  They 
include  children  who  are  by  nature  endowed  with  greater 
spelling  ability,  children  who  are  better  graded,  and  children 
who  have  been  better  taught. 

Since  there  were  25  words  on  the  test,  each  word  is  equivalent 
to  4  per  cent.  Hence  children  in  grades  three,  five  and  seven 
who  spelled  more  than  18  words  exceeded  the  average  of  73% 
set  for  these  grades.  Those  who  had  22  or  more  words  correct 
in  grade  four  equalled  or  exceeded  the  standard  of  88%  for  that 
grade.  Similarly  children  in  grades  six  and  eight  who  had  21 
or  more  words  correct  equalled  or  exceeded  the  standard  of  84% 
for  these  grades.  These  children  may  be  said  to  have  spelled 
better  than  average  children  in  American  cities  who  have  com- 
pleted one-half  of  the  work  of  their  respective  grades.  There 
are  14,887  of  the  36,401  children,  or  slightly  less  than  41%, 
who  spelled  as  well  or  better  than  Ayres  average  for  American 
cities.  These  were  distributed  for  each  class  of  school  by  grades 
as  follows  (Table  3)  : 

TABLE  3. — Number    and  percent  of  Children  who  Spelled  as  well  or   better 
than  Ayres  expected  Mid-year  Average 


Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Total 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

No. 

% 

Rural  

1,204 

43 

1,527 

50 

682 

37 

1,102 

42 

844 

39 

1,166 

45 

6,825 

43 

State 

Graded  . 

602 

43 

730 

53 

454 

33 

607 

48 

473 

47 

536 

53 

3,402 

46 

Hifirh  and 

City  

684 

28 

1,042  j  4t 

656 

29 

956 

41 

656 

35 

666 

41 

4,660 

35 

Total.... 

2.490 

38 

3,299   48 

?,092 

33 

2.665 

43 

1,973 

39 

2,368    46 

14^887 

IT 

20  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

The  proportion  in  cities  is  naturally  lower  because  of  the  fact 
that  the  tests  in  cities  were  given  somewhat  earlier  in  the  school 
year. 

There  were  pupils  in  each  grade  who  failed  on  all  of  the  words 
and  others  who  spelled  only  a  very  few  of  the  twenty-five  words 
correctly.  Still  all  were  classified  by  their  teachers  and  princi- 
pals as  pupils  having  third,  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh  or  eighth 
grade  spelling  ability.  Obviously  the  term  " fifth"  or  "sixth 
grade  spellmg  ability"  has  little  significance.  Children  in  grade 
eight  who  spelled  less  than  fourteen  correctly  i.  e.  an  average  of 
56%  are  to  be  considered  as  possessing  not  more  than  sixth  grade 
spelling  ability.  Similarly  children  in  other  grades  making  very 
low  scores  are  to  be  considered  as  possessing  the  spelling  ability 
of  average  children  several  grades  lower  than  that  in  which  they 
are  now  found.  Some  teachers  either  have  been  negligent  in 
their  spelling  requirements  for  promotion,  or  know  little  of  what 
constitutes  fourth  grade,  or  fifth  grade,  ability  in  spelling. 
Others  apparently  have  accomplished  little  in  the  way  of  teach- 
ing children  how  to  spell  common  words. 

The  results  in  each  class  of  schools  will  be  considered  briefly. 
The  results  in  rural  schools 

The  following  table  gives  the  average  scores  obtained  in  each 
county  together  with  the  combined  result  for  all  rural  schools 
and  the  expected  average.  The  highest  and  lowest  scores  for 
each  grade  are  indicated  in  bold  face.  The  rural  school  average 
for  each  county  was  obtained  from  the  combined  distribution  of 
the  scores  for  all  rural  schools  reported  from  the  county. 


Spelling 


21 


TABLE  4 Average  Ayres  Spelling  Scores  in  Rural  Schools — By  Counties 


Counties 

Number 
of 
schools 
tested 

List  L 

List  Q 

1 
List  U 

Number 
of 
children 
tested 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

1  ... 

15 
27 
59 
14 
15 
13 
16 
15 
60 
65 
11 
31 
8 
125 
14 
8 
80 
8 
15 
63 
16 
11 
14 
39 
15 
15 
17 
69 
12 
9 
24 
24 
42 
6 
7 
16 
72 
94 
11 

81 
78 
65 
58 
53 
61 
48 
65 
55 
61 
61 
63 
46 
70 
50 
61 
63 
65 
60 
70 
60 
58 
72 
62 
71 
69 
65 
65 
82 
65 
69 
72 
56 
68 
33 
69 
59 
67 
49 

90 

83 
80 
78 
70 
73 
78 
79 
87 
79 
71 
78 
70 
77 
65 
80 
76 
9O 
77 
83 
79 
82 
85 
74 
82 
74 
70 
77 
83 
70 
82 
79 
86 
86 
52 
68 
67 
84 
78 

67 
68 
61 
43 
37 
57 
49 
62 
58 
54 
64 
63 
44 
65 
44 
57 
59 
66 
58 
63 
47 
49 
67 
56 
49 
68 
53 
59 
78 
56 
61 
66 
60 
61 
50 
58 
57 
63 
77 

83 
76 
79 
74 
68 
72 
61 
70 
67 
70 
62 
78 
68 
70 
59 
54 
74 
83 
74 
75 
80 
53 
82 
68 
68 
72 
61 
66 
87 
75 
72 
79 
83 
78 
67 
80 
58 
74 
74 

71 
82 

69 
56 
56 
79 
52 
74 
59 
65 
48 
55 
46 
65 
61 
62 
67 
71 
60 
66 
44 
55 
70 
62 
62 
73 
56 
67 
81 
65 
57 
67 
59 
71 
52 
55 
58 
64 
66 

79 
81 
80 
64 
71 
70 
63 
89 
81 
74 
55 
73 
73 
70 
68 
71 
78 
86 
76 
77 
79 
77 
78 
71 
70 
78 
66 
73 
77 
61 
76 
75 
81 
82 
64 
73 
63 
75 
65 

105 
245 
650 
194 
203 
134 
218 
168 
1,398 
834 
166 
369 
118 
1,352 
220 
93 
827 
161 
256 
918 
156 
140 
177 
550 
190 
271 
266 
1,021 
155 
83 
284 
240 
322 
146 
113 
189 
649 
2,114 
130 

2 

3   

4  

5  

6  

7  

8  

9 

10 

11 

12  

13 

14  

15  

16  

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23  

24  
25 

26 

27 

28 

29  ... 

30  

31  

32  

33  

34  

35  

36  

37  

38 

39 

Rural  sch< 
Ayres  star 

)ol  average 
dard 

64. 
73 

79. 
88 

60. 
73 

71. 
84 

63. 
73 

73. 

84 

15,825 

22 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


Judged  by  Ayres  standards  rural  children  in  Wisconsin  do 
not  spell  well.  They  average  not  less  than  ten  points  below  the 
standard  in  every  grade.  However,  -when  compared  with  other 
classes  of  Wisconsin  schools  as  will  be  seen  from  Table  I,  they 
are  not  conspicuously  poorer  nor  better  spellers  than  the  pupils 
in  the  cities  and  villages. 

The  fact  that  rural  children  spelled  somewhat  better  than 
children  in  cities  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  tests 
in  most  cities  were  given  earlier  in  the  year. 

If  we  consider  that  each  list  of  words  was  given  in  two  grades 
we  may  compare  grade  three  with  four,  five  with  six,  and  seven 
with  eight.  Each  of  the  advanced  grades  shows  improvement 
over  the  three  earlier  using  the  same  lists  of  words.  It  is  notice- 
able, however,  that  grade  eight  has  only  attained  Ayres  standard 
for  grade  seven  and  that  grade  six  does  not  quite  reach  Ayres 
fifth  grade  standard. 
The  number  of  counties  that  reached  Ayres  standard 

The  number  of  counties  equalling  or  exceeding  and  the  num- 
ber falling  below  Ayres  expected  for  each  grade  are  indicated 
in  Table  5. 

TABLE  5 — Number  of  counties  equalling  or  exceeding  and  number  falling 
'below  Ayres  Standard  in  each  grade 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Number  counties  tested 

39 

39 

39 

39 

39 

39 

Number    equalling   or   exceeding 
standard  .  . 

3 

2 

2 

1 

5 

2 

Number  below  standard 

36 

37 

37 

38 

34 

37 

It  will  be  seen  that  very  few  counties  reach  the  expected  aver- 
age in  any  grade.  Referring  again  to  Table  4  it  will  be  seen 
that  only  four  counties,  numbers  1,  2,  8,  18  and  29  reached  the 
expected  standard  in  more  than  one  grade.  The  best  showing 
is  made  by  county  29  which  exceeded  the  Ayres  standard  in  four 
grades  and  did  not  fall  less  than  seven  points  below  in  either 
of  the  other  two  grades.  County  35  makes  the  very  lowest  scores 
in  two  grades  and  a  poor  showing  in  each  of  the  other  grades. 
Spelling  is  evidently  better  taught  in  some  counties  than  in 
others. 


Spelling 


23 


Figure  II  represents  graphically  the  average  attainment  for 
the  39  counties,  the  highest  and  lowest  scores  in  each  grade  and 
Ayres  standard.  Were  the  children  in  each  grade  in  every  county 
able  to  spell  as  well  as  average  children  in  the  counties  having 
the  best  spelling  for  each  grade,  Wisconsin  rural  children  would 
be  considered  good  spellers. 


100 
90 


ii                      n 

V                               Tl 

71 

I                         VIII 

^  —  —  ~~^^^ 

^2 

-^  "^ 

^-    -_ 

„-   --   "^ 

^X*^^*^                  '   """* 

^*  %x                      ^^"^ 

'^^ 

^\ 

^^ 

.--•" 

X.  ^ 

...--'" 

"  —  ... 

^ 

.,  _ 

^..  •"'"**" 

^  " 
x"" 

_,  
^ 

"\. 

^».  _ 

^' 

^  

Average  Score  for 

All  Counties  Coal 

.  .^* 

ined 



Average  of  Highes 
Average  of  Lowest 

t  County 
County 



Ayres  Standard 

Tig.  II       The  AT.rage  Spelling  Score  for  39  Counties,  the  Highest  and  Lowest  Average 
Scores  la  Each  Grade  and  Ayres  Standard 

Tine  results  in  state  graded  schools1 

The  returns  from  first  and  second-class  state  graded  schools 
have  been  combined  and  a  single  average  obtained.  The  schools 
almost  without  exception  have  only  annual  promotions  and  the 
average  scores  may  well  be  compared  with  Ayres  standard 
which  represent  scores  for  children  who  have  completed  just  half 
of  the  work  of  a  grade.  The  averages  attained  by  combining 
the  results  from  all  state  graded  schools  are  given  below : 

TABLE  6. 


Grades 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

State  Graded  Averages  

64 

80 

59 

74 

67 

78 

Ayres  Standard  

73 

88 

73 

84 

73 

84 

From  Table  6  it  will  be  seen  that  children  in  state  graded 
schools  are  likewise  below  Ayres  expected  standard  in  every 
grade.  The  number  of  points  below  the  standard  varies  from 


1  See  first  page  of  this  section  for  explanation  of  the  term  "state  graded 
schools." 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


six  in  grades  seven  and  eight  to  fourteen  in  grade  five.  While 
the  results  compare  favorably  with  those  in  other  types  of  Wis- 
consin schools  they  are  by  no  means  satisfactory. 

The  results  in  high  schools  and  cities1 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  test  in  rural  and  state  graded 
schools  was  given  at  a  time  when  the  children  had  spent  approx- 
imately one-half  year  in  the  grade  and  that  the  standards  estab- 
lished by  Dr.  Ayres  are  for  scores  made  at  that  time.  In  sev- 
eral high  schools2  and  cities  the  test  was  given  earlier  in  the  school 
year  and  a  fair  evaluation  of  the  work  must  therefor  take  ac- 
count of  the  date  of  the  test.  Among  cities  having  only  annual 
promotions,  those  tested  during  the  first  semester  may  be  ex- 
pected to  attain  averages  somewhat  less  than  the  standard,  while 
those  tested  during  the  second  semester  should  exceed  it.  In  the 
case  of  schools  having  semiannual  promotions  it  is  estimated 
that  the  standard  averages  should  be  reached  about  November 
15th  and  April  1st  for  the  first  and  second  semesters  respec- 
tively. For  a  test  given  at  other  times  the  expected  average 
can  only  be  estimated.  To  aid  in  making  such  estimates  the 
standard  averages,  the  average  expected  a  full  year  earlier  and 
estimated  averages  to  be  attained  one-half  year  earlier  or  later 
are  given  in  Table  7. 

TABLE  7. — Standard  and  estimated  averages  for  successive  naif  years* 


Lis 

bL 

Lis 

t  Q 

Lis 

tu 

III 

IV 

V 

1 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Standard  average  1  year  enrlior  . 
Estimated  average  i  year  earlier 
Standard  average  

50 
62 
73 

73 
81 
88 

58 
66 
73 

73 
79 
84 

58 
66 
73 

73 
79 
84 

Estimated  average  \  year  later.. 

81 

91 

79 

88 

79 

88 

1  Unfortunately  a  few  cities  in  which  the  test  was  given  are  not  in- 
cluded. In  some  cases  the  superintendent  did  not  wish  his  school  to  be 
included  because  of  the  poor  showing.  In  other  instances  complete  re- 
turns were  not  received. 

2  The    term    "high   school"    refers   to    schools    in    cities    and    towns    or- 
ganized as  district  free  high  schools. 

3  Estimated    averages    ar»   co^put^d    on    the   basis    of   normal    probability. 
See  any  table  of  probability  for  the   amount  to  be  added   or  subtracted 
when    estimating    performances    at    given   times.     Consult    Ayres    mono- 
graph,   "Measurement    of   Ability   in   Spelling"    p.    29f    for    the    method    used 
by  Ayres  in  arranging  his  scale. 


Spelling 


25 


The  average  scores  by  cities  arranged  in  approximate  order 
of  the  portion  of  the  work  of  the  grade  which  pupils  had  com- 
pleted at  the  time  of  the  test  are  given  in  Table  8. 


TABLE  8. — Average  Ayres  Spelling  Scores  in  Cities 


Wis. 
cities 

Date 
Tested 

Section 
Tested 

List  L 

List  Q 

ListU 

Number 
of 
children 
tested 

III 

39 
39 
28 

29 
42 
69 
51 
41 
42 
61 
59 
50 

IV 

75 

68 
71 
50 

61 
76 
74 
71 
75 
79 
79 
78 

V 

47 
46 
54 
30 
57 
55 
55 
54 
55 
49 
48 
57 
74 
55 
50 
53 
52 
76 
50 
60 

VI 

71 
75 

70 
76 
65 
70 

77 
67 
71 
66 
74 
70 
80 
77 
74 
70 
79 
87 
65 
85 

VII 

VIII 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 

9    28—16 
10-  3—16 
10-10-16 
10-23—16 
10—24-16 
10—25-16 
10—26—16 
10—27-16 
11—..—  16 
2-  5—17 
12—  5-16 
12-  8—16 
12—13—16 
12-14-16 
12-15—16 
12-..—  16 
12-..—  16 
12—.  16 
12  -..-16 
12—15—16 
12—28—16 
10—18—16 
3-13—17 
-10-17 
—11—17 
—11—17 
1—11—17 
1—11—17 
11—  ..—16 
3-29—17 
12—  5—16 
12—  ..-.16 
12—20—16 
4—  2-17 
4_  5—17 

B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
A&B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
A&B 
A&B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
A&B 
A&B 
A&B 
A&B 
A&B 
A 
A 

51 
63 
65 
72 
51 
65 
62 
64 
61 
61 
53 
57 
73 
66 
67 
65 
52 
66 
65 
66 

79 
70 
64 
72 
56 
81 
71 
65 
81 
76 
65 
63 
84 
71 
81 
71 
73 
74 
88 
82 

248 
529 
386 
195 
470 
211 
351 
179 
2,075 
1,868 
307 
439 
124 
271 
195 
200 
346 
91 
114 
175 
40 
384 
274 
201 
244 
119 
85 
155 
427 
924 
765 
266 
253 
116 
84 

69 
54 
49 
47 
60 
65 
65 
65 
47 
55 
35 
51 
39 
71 
74 
64 
67 
53 
42 
52 
75 
62 

60* 
6f 
73 

88 
93 

64 

78 
69 
80 
63 
67 
79 
77 
84 
77 
82 
76 
63 
82 
80 
82 

74 
88 

59 
53 
43 
38 
51 
44 

(55 

74 
56 
64 
44 
64 
61 
72 

55 
73 

74 
76 
73 
67 
66 
82 
80 
88 
75 
72 
44 
74 
73 
93 

72 
84 

41 

52 
59 
42 
63 
80 
68 
74 
63 
77 

72 

80 
62 

53 
89 

71 
75 

60 
54 
71 

76 
82 
89 

Combi 
Ayres 

ned  Average. 
Standard 

52 

73 

61 
73 

73 

84 

13,111 

26 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


The  highest  and  lowest  scores  in  each  grade  are  set  in  bold 
face.     They  are  summarized  in  Table  9. 

TA.BLE  9. The  highest  and  lowest  average  scores  in  each  grade  in  cities 


Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Low6st  %                 

28 

50 

30 

44 

41 

53 

Highest  %              

75 

93 

76 

93 

80 

89 

The  lowest  third  grade  average  was  28%  or  more  than  20% 
less  than  these  children  should  have  scored  at  the  middle  of  their 
second  year.  The  highest  third  grade  score  was  75%,  only  two 
points  above  the  mid-year  standard.  It  was  made  by  a  school 
that  had  completed  approximately  three-fourths  of  the  year's 
work,  and  which  should  therefore  have  made  a  score  still  higher. 
The  lowest  fourth  grade  score  is  just  50%,  or  second-grade  stand- 
ard. The  highest  is  93.  One  fifth  grade  averaged  only  30%. 
The  highest  fifth  grade  average  was  76%.  In  the  sixth  grade  the 
highest  score  was  93%  and  the  lowest  44.  Grade  seven  varied 
from  41%  to  80%,  and  grade  eight  from  53%  to  89%. 

How  it  is  possible  for  one  school  to  score  only  30%  in  the  fifth 
grade  or  how  another  can  fail  to  exceed  53%  in  the  eighth  grade 
when  another  makes  an  average  of  89%,  is  difficult  to  compre- 
hend. Certainly  the  work  in  spelling  either  has  not  been  wisely 
administered  or  has  not  been  well  taught  in  cities  making  an  un- 
usually poor  showing.  Such  results  are  unjust  to  the  child  and 
to  the  community  which  pays  for  his  education. 

From  Table  8  it  will  be  seen  that  even  allowing  liberally  for 
the  time  of  giving  the  test  few  cities  made  a  strong  showing  in 
any  grade.  No  city  exceeds  Ayres  standard  in  all  grades. 
Three  cities,  Numbers  13,  18  and  29  equal  or  exceed  it  in  three 
grades.  Three  others,  numbers  19,  28  and  35  equal  or  exceed  it 
in  two  grades.  Four  others,  numbers  20,  27,  31  and  34  exceed 
it  in  one  grade.  The  number  of  cities  that  reached  or  exceeded 
Ayres  standard  and  the  number  that  failed  to  do  so  for  each 
grade  is  shown  in  Table  10. 


Spelling 


27 


TABLE  10.  —  The  number  of  citiet  equalling  or  exceeding  Ayres  Standard 
and  the  number  falling  below  in  each  grade 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Number  cities  tested    

34 

33 

34 

34 

33 

30 

Number   cities    equalling    or  ex- 
ceeding Ayres  standard  

2 

2 

3 

4 

4 

4 

Number  cities  falling  below  Ayres 

32 

31 

31 

30 

29 

26 

When  we  consider  the  fact  that  a  number  of  cities  for  each 
grade  have  not  reached  the  standard  which  shouldliave  been  at- 
tained a  year  before,  it  can  be  said  without  gross  unfairness 
that  Wisconsin  cities  are  lagging  more  than  a  half  year  behind 
the  standard  of  American  cities  in  spelling.  Whether  the  sys- 
tem of  annual  promotions  so  prevalent  in  the  state,  the  course 
of  study,  or  the  methods  of  teaching  are  the  contributing  causes 
is  a  matter  which  individual  superintendents  must  seek  to  dis- 
cover. 

The  combined  Wisconsin  score  for  each  grade  in  cities,  Ayres 
standard  for  each  grade  and  his  standard  to  be  attained  one  year 
earlier  are  represented  graphically  in  the  figure  following: 


100 
90 
80 
TO 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 


VIII 


Ayr* 


Standard  One  Yea 


Earlier 


A7n 


Standard 


Arer 


ige  for  35  Cities 


Tig. Ill  The  Average  Score  for  35  Cities  Compared  with  Ayres  Standard  and  the 
Standard  to  be  Attained  by  the  Sane  Children  One  Tear  Earlier 

Differences  in  success  in  spelling  are  due  to  several  causes. 
Some  teachers  attempt  to  cover  too  much  ground.  The  result 
of  this  is  superficial  teaching.  Too  often  the  words  are  poorly 


28 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


selected.  This  results  iu  an  emphasis  upon  words  which  chil- 
dren will  have  little  occasion  to  use,  and  in  the  neglect  of  com- 
mon words  which  they  ought  to  know  how  to  spell.  Some  teach- 
ers do  not  expect  as  much  of  their  pupils  as  others.  In  some 
cases  the  teacher  misjudges  the  spelling  ability  of  her  pupils. 
This  appears  to  have  been  the  case  with  many  of  the  teachers 
whose  pupils  were  tested.  No  teacher  would  knowingly  be  sat- 
isfied with  such  spelling  ability  as  the  test  revealed  in  many 
schools.  Teachers  as  a  whole  pay  too  little  attention  to  individ- 
ual differences  among  their  children.  A  teacher  may  regard  all 
of  her  pupils  as  of  fifth  grade  spelling  ability,  when  as  a  matter 
of  fact  some  are  only  the  equivalent  of  third  or  fourth  grade 
spellers,  and  others  have  the  ability  of  sixth  or  seventh  grade 
pupils. 

An  illustration  of  the  variation  in  average  performances  which 
may  occur  between  buildings  in  the  same  city  may  be  seen  from 
the  table  below.  The  third  grade  in  one  building  averages  19% 
and  another  60%.  One  fourth  grade  averages  58%  and  another 
80%.  Four  of  the  highest  scores  for  each  grade  occur  in  one 
building.  The  figures  it  must  be  remembered  are  for  children 
in  the  same  city,  where  standards  of  grading  are  supposed  to  be 
equal  or  nearly  so  in  all  buildings.  More  care  in  grading,  how- 
ever, is  a  quite  evident  need  in  this  city.  It  will  be  well  for 
every  superintendent  to  seek  for  effective  means  of  dealing  with 
such  situations. 

TABLE  11. — Average  Ayres'  spelling  scores  in  different  buildings  of  one  city 


Grades 

Buildings 

Average  of 
all  buildings 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 

44 
78 
54 
.65 
40 
61 

19 
68 
46 
72 
42 
60 

35 
67 
37 
62 

33 
70 
51 

46 
68 
43 

2 

63 

44 
72 
50 
66 
35 
51 

60 
80 
57 
67 
57 
56 

44 
5S 
41 
57 
39 
60 

43 
77 
41 
73 
50 
61 

41 
71 
47 
66 
44 
59 

1  Owing  to  the  form  in  which  the  report  was  made  the  results  for  this 
city   are    not   included   in    the    preceding   tables. 


Spelling 


29 


The  variation  within  a  grade  and  the  overlapping  of  perform- 
ances from  one  grade  to  the  next  for  another  city  may  be  judged 
from  the  distribution  of  scores  for  grades  three,  four,  five  and  six 
in  Table  12.  Good,  average  and  poor  spellers  are  found  in  the 
same  grades. 


TABLE  12. — Showing  variation  within  grades  and  the  overlapping  of  per- 
formances for  one  city 


Number  of 
words  cor- 
rectly spelled 

Per  cent  of 
words  correct 

List  L 

ListQ 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

0 

0 

23 

2 

1 

4 

27 

5 

2 

g 

24 

3 

10 

3 

12 

26 

2 

13 

3 

4 

16 

17 

2 

12 

2 

5 

20 

20 

1 

13 

1 

6 

24 

17 

6 

13 

4 

7 

28 

22 

4 

10 

4 

8 

32 

15 

9 

14 

9 

9 

36 

22 

7 

15 

8 

10 

40 

11 

12 

10 

4 

11 

44 

13 

9 

18 

12 

12 

48 

18 

12 

16 

10 

13 

52 

17 

12 

13 

13 

14 

56 

17 

10 

22 

17 

15 

60 

18 

17 

11 

19 

16 

64 

17 

16 

22 

19 

17 

68 

15 

18 

16 

21 

18 

72 

13 

21 

14 

18 

19 

76 

8 

19 

11 

10 

20 

80 

17 

31 

17 

28 

21 

84 

12 

36 

18 

24 

22 

88 

18 

50 

13 

31 

23 

92 

6 

27 

14 

23 

24 

96 

7 

50 

13 

19 

25 

100 

6 

48 

13 

31 

Total  

426 

422 

348 

330 

Average  %  cor 

rect  .  . 

42. 

75. 

55. 

71. 

Since  grades  three  and  four  were  given  the  same  test  these 
grades  may  be  compared  with  each  other,  as  may  also  five  with 
six.  There  is  a  significant  overlapping  of  one  grade  on  another. 
Many  third  grade  children  exceed  a  large  part  of  the  fourth 


30  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

grade.  A  similar  condition  exists  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades 
as  may  be  seen  in  Table  13.  A  considerable  proportion  of  the 
third  and  fifth  grades  exceed  the  averages  attained  by  the  next 
higher  grade  in  each  case.  There  are  many  in  the  fourth  and 
sixth  grades  who  fail  to  reach  the  average  attained  by  the  next 
lower  grade. 

TABLE  13. 

%  of  3rd  grade  who  exceed  4th  grade  average 17 . 4 

%    "  4th      "        "     fall  below  3rd  grade  average   10.9 

%    "  5th      "        "      exceed  6th  grade  average   32.5 

%    "  6th      "        "     fall  below  5th  grade  average 21.2 


of  3rd  grade  who  exceed  lowest  25%  of  4th  grade 28.1 

"  "  "  "  "  "  50%"  "  "  11.5 

"  ««  «  "  "  "  75%  "  "  "  3.4 

of  5th  grade  who  exceed  lowest  25%  of  6th  grade 47.6 

«  «  «  "  "  "  50%  "  "  "  28.1 

75%  "  "  "  12.6 


More  than  a  fourth  of  the  third  grade  children  exceed  the 
lowest  fourth  of  the  fourth  grade,  11.5%  did  better  than  half 
of  the  fourth  grade.  3.4%  did  better  than  75%  of  the  fourth 
grade.  In  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades  this  overlapping  is  even 
more  marked.  Almost  half  of  the  fifth  grade  did  better  than 
the  poorest  fourth  of  the  sixth,  more  than  a  fifth  exceeded  half 
of  the  sixth  grade,  and  one-eighth  did  better  than  three-fourths 
of  the  sixth  grade.  More  than  15%  of  the  fifth  grade  children 
are  above  Ayres  sixth  grade  standard. 

Superintendents  should  seek  effective  means  of  dealing  with 
such  situations  as  those  in  the  two  cities  represented  by  Table 
11  and  12.  Two  administrative  measures  are  being  employed 
in  some  cities.  One  is  to  arrange  the  daily  programs  so  that  all 
spelling  occurs  at  the  same  period  of  the  day.  A  child  studies 
spelling  in  whatever  grade  is  most  nearly  his  own  level  of  ability. 
Another  is  that  of  housing  several  classes  of  the  same  grade  in 
one  building  and  then  sectioning  them  according  to  ability. 
Children  strong  in  spelling  will  quite  frequently  be  found  to  be 
the  same  individuals  who  are  strong  in  other  subjects.  When 
this  is  done  the  course  of  study  can  be  more  nearly  made  to  fit 
the  needs  of  each  group.  Children  who  are  already  able  to  spell 
many  of  the  words  which  others  are  striving  to  master  need  not 


Spelling 


31 


squander  time  waiting  for  these  poorer  spellers.  They  may  be 
assigned  more  advanced  work  or  set  at  some  other  more  profit- 
able task. 

THE  QUESTIONNAIRE  ON  THE  COURSE  OF  STUDY  IN  SPELLING 

As  stated  previously  schools  were  asked  to  report  such  facts  as 
the  time  devoted  to  spelling,  the  number  of  new  words  taught 
per  week,  the  sources  of  the  words  used,  the  proportion  of  words 
from  each  source  and  the  relative  proportion  of  time  devoted  to 
oral  and  written  spelling.  The  purpose  of  asking  for  these 
facts  was  to  discover  what  variations  exist  and  what  if  any 
bearing  these  facts  have  upon  the  results  obtained.  In  the  case 
of  rural  schools,  reports  were  submitted  in  many  cases  for  each 
school  rather  than  for  the  county  as  intended,  thus  greatly  in- 
creasing the  work  of  tabulating  the  returns. 

THE  TIME  DEVOTED  TO  SPELLING 

The  median  amount  of  time  per  week  given  to  the  teaching 
of  spelling  for  165  rural  schools  selected  at  random  from  24 
counties,  29  state  graded  schools,  and  21  high  schools  and  cities, 
as  reported  by  principals  and  superintendents,  is  shown  in  the 
accompanying  table.  The  median  indicates  in  each  case  that 
one-half  of  the  schools  represented  by  the  figures  above  devote 
more  and  the  other  half  less  than  the  figure  given.  The  relia- 
bility of  the  figures  is  of  course  dependent  upon  the  reliability  of 
the  reports  submitted  by  teachers  and  superintendents.  Only 
in  some  rural  schools  is  there  reason  to  believe  that  significant 
errors  may  sometimes  have  been  made  in  reporting. 

TABLE  14 — Number  of  Minutes  per  Week  Devoted  to  Spelling 


II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

165  rural  schools  

45 

50 

50 

50 

50 

50 

55 

State  graded  schools  

50 

60 

75 

50 

67  5 

75 

75 

High  schools  and  cities  

70 

75 

75 

75 

75 

85 

75 

The  figures  indicate  that  the  typical  school  does  not  spend  an 
undue  amount  of  time  on  spelling.     In  fact  the  time  is  small, 


32 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


especially  in  rural  schools.  A  reasonable  amount  is  75  minutes 
per  week  or  15  minutes  per  day  including  both  study  and  teach- 
ing periods.  This  means  roughly  5%  of  the  total  school  time. 
Schools  which  give  much  more  time  than  that  to  the  subject  of 
spelling  should  stop  to  consider  whether  such  a  policy  provides 
for  a  fair  apportionment  of  the  time  among  all  of  the  subjects 
on  the  daily  program.  Some  teachers  reported  several  hundred 
minutes  per  week  given  to  spelling  in  each  grade.  Superin- 
tendents should  not  tolerate  such  extravagant  and  unwise  use 
of  time.  On  the  other  hand,  satisfactory  results  cannot  be  se- 
cured when  too  little  time  is  allowed.  It  is  not  likely  that  any 
but  unusually  capable  teachers  can  develop  good  spellers  in  less 
than  ten  minutes  per  day  or  three  fifteen  minute  periods  per 
week.  Until  such  time  as  we  have  evidence  to  the  contrary,  it 
will  be  well  to  allow  15  minutes  per  day  for  the  intensive  teach- 
ing and  study  of  spelling.  The  small  amount  of  time  given  in 
some  schools  seems  to  indicate  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  some 
teachers  to  rely  upon  the  incidental  teaching  of  spelling  to 
secure  satisfactory  results.  This  is  probably  one  of  the  causes 
contributing  to  poor  spelling  in  Wisconsin. 

The  Record  of  Two  Rural  Schools  in  One  County 

TABLE  15. — The  time  devoted  to  spelling,  the  number  of  new  words 

taught  per  week,  and  the  average  scores  in  two 

rural  schools  in  one  county 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

School. 

T 

W 

A 

T 

W 

A 

T 

W 

A 

T 

W 

A 

T 

W 

A 

T 

W 

A 

A 

BliO 

^ 

64 

350 

">*> 

56 

400 

*w 

61 

Tifl 

?0 

P7 

i 

B.... 

30 

15 

70 

30 

15 

89 

65 

25 

91 

65 

25 

89 

75 

30 

60 

75 

30 

80 

T=Number  minutes  per  week,      W=Numbar  of  new  words  per  week, 
score. 


A=Average 


The  need  of  standardizing  the  time  devoted  to  spelling  is 
strikingly  portrayed  in  these  two  rural  schools  in  one  county. 
Both  attempt  to  accomplish  almost  equal  amounts  of  work  as 
shown  by  the  number  of  new  words  taught  each  week,  yet  school 
A  at  the  cost  of  much  more  time,  accomplished  on  the  whole 
far  less  than  school  B.  The  teacher  in  school  B  makes  much 
better  use  of  the  time  at  her  disposal.  She  is  apparently  a  better 
teacher  of  spelling.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  time  is 


Spelling 


33 


squandered  where  such,  extravagance  is  shown  as  in  school  A. 
This  is  a  serious  matter  particularly  in  rural  schools  where  the 
number  of  days  attended  each  year  and  the  number  of  years  a 
child  remains  in  school  are,  on  the  whole,  less  than  in  other 
classes  of  schools.  When  spelling  is  well  taught,  fifteen  minutes 
per  day  is  ample  time.  When  poorly  taught,  no  amount  of  time 
will  secure  satisfactory  results. 

The  Time  Devoted  to  Spelling  and  the  Average  Spelling  Scores 
in  Eight  Counties 

Eight  county  superintendents  gave  averages  only  in  reporting 
the  time  given  to  spelling  in  the  schools  tested.  In  some  coun- 
ties, these  averages  are  known  to  have  been  accurately  computed, 
but  it  is  feared  that  in  a  few  the  figures  represent  estimates. 
However,  the  average  time  as  reported  and  the  average  score 
made  on  the  test  are  given  in  Table  16  in  the  hope  that  other 
county  superintendents  may  be  induced  to  make  a  more  careful 
study  of  the  relation  of  time  to  results  in  spelling. 

TABLE  16. — The  Average  Time  Devoted  to  Spelling  and  the  Average 
Spelling  Scores  in  Eight  Counties 


I] 

[I 

I 

7 

^ 

T  „ 

V 

I 

V 

[I 

VI 

II 

Counties 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

1 

30 

70 

30 

83 

30 

63 

40 

75 

40 

66 

40 

77 

2 

41 

56 

4(3 

oti 

til 

60 

n 

83 

3* 

59 

60 

81 

3 

lOil 

81 

100 

90 

150 

1)7 

150 

83 

150 

71 

150 

79 

4  

75 

• 

62 
58 

75 

* 

74 
70 

75 

* 

56 
37 

75 

50 

68 
68 

75 

60 

62 
56 

75 
60 

71 
71 

6  

41 
150 

80 
65 

42 
150 

88 

77 

63 

170 

64 
59 

48 
170 

84 
66 

43 

150 

88 
67 

44 

10 

72 
73 

8  

20 

55 

25 

87 

30 

58 

30 

67 

50 

59 

50 

81 

T— Time  in  minutes  per  week.. 

A— Average  %  of  \vor<U  correct. 

*— Spelling-  taught  in  connection  with  reading. 

In  Table  16,  counties  three  and  seven  give  more  time  to  spell- 
ing than  any  of  the  others.  Do  they  make  the  best  showing  on 
the  test?  County  three  makes  the  best  score  in  the  third  and 
fourth  grades.  In  the  fifth  grade,  its  score  is  low  but  still  su- 
perior to  that  of  the  other  counties.  On  the  whole,  this  county 
pays  high  for  results  which,  with  two  exceptions,  are  not  above 
the  expected  average.  In  county  seven,  no  grade  reaches  Ayres 


34  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

standard.  This  county  likewise  pays  high  for  what  it  gets.  In 
county  five,  spelling  is  taught  in  connection  with  reading 
through  grade  five.  The  unsatisfactory  results  in  this  county 
may  be  noted  from  the  fact  that  it  makes  the  poorest  score  in 
four  of  the  six  grades  tested.  The  table  indicates  further  that 
the  best  seventh  and  eighth  grade  scores  were  made  in  counties 
devoting  not  more  than  ten  minutes  per  day  to  spelling. 

Time  and  Average  Scores  in  Ten  State  Graded  Schools 

Table  17  gives  the  time  devoted  to  spelling  and  the  average 
scores  made  in  ten  first-class  state  graded  schools,  (i.  e.  schools 
with  three  or  more  grade  teachers.) 

TABLE  17.— The  Time  Devoted  to  Spelling  and  the  Average  Spelling  Score  in 
Each  'Grade  for  Ten  First- Class  State  Graded  Schools 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Cities 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

T 

A 

1 

100 

72 

I  100 

94 

125 

61 

120 

73 

125 

60 

125 

78 

2 

50 

60 

30 

82 

30 

67 

75 

79 

75 

75 

75 

77 

3 

50 

74 

i  50 

96 

50 

50 

75 

92 

75 

66 

75 

75 

4 

50 

61 

i  25 

82 

25 

61 

25 

56 

50 

66 

50 

89 

5 

100 

76 

100 

97 

75 

47 

60 

65 

65 

73 

65 

63 

6 

100 

72 

100 

94 

100 

71 

100 

91 

100 

76 

100 

80 

7 

75 

68 

75 

75 

75 

52 

55 

80 

75 

74 

75 

84 

8 

75 

73 

75 

82 

75 

68 

75 

68 

75 

62 

75 

82 

9 

75 

57 

75 

90 

75 

55 

75 

80 

75 

79 

,75 

80 

10 

75 

55 

50 

69 

50 

68 

50 

78 

75 

90 

75 

94 

T — Time  in  minutes  per  week. 
A— Average  %  of  words  correct. 


Here  again  it  is  evident  that  more  time  does  not  necessarily 
guarantee  better  results.  The  best  scores  in  the  three  upper 
grades  were  made  on  a  seventy-five  minute  per  week  schedule. 
The  best  scores  in  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  grades  were  made 
in  schools  giving  one  hundred  minutes  per  week.  In  grades 
three  and  four,  however,  they  are  only  slightly  superior  to  the 
averages  made  in  schools  in  which  spelling  receives  only  one- 
half  as  much  time. 


Spelling 


35 


Time  and  Average  Scores  in  Ten  High  Schools,  and  Cities 

Table  18  shows  the  number  of  minutes  weekly  given  to  spelling 
and  the  average  scores  on  the  test  for  10  selected  high  schools 
and  cities. 


TABLE  18. — Number  of  Minutes  per  Week  given  to  Spelling  and  the  Average 
Seoresfor  Ten  High  Schools  and  Cities 


1 

+a 

0 

11 

III 

l\ 
T 

Av. 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

T 

T 

Av. 

T 

Av. 

T 

Av. 

!  T 

Av. 

T 

Av. 

1 

2 
3 
4 

6 
7 
8 
9 
10 

25 
75 

30 
75 
75 
120 
100 
50 
75 
150 
100 
100 

61 
62 
60 
47 
75 
65 
69 
51 
54 

50 
75 
75 
100 
125 
75 
125 
125 
100 
115 

79 
82 
88 
73 
80 
64 
76 
67 
60 

60 
75 
50 
175 
75 
75 
75 
125 
100 
1  100 

49 
72 
76 
52 
61 
60 
54 
38 
50 
74 

60 
75 
50 
200 

66 
93 
87 
79 
75 
85 
70 
67 
74 
SO 

80 
85 
50 
140 
70 
100 
100 
125 
60 
K 

61 
71 
66 
52 
54 
65 
65 
41 
67 
73 

60 
85 
50 
125 
75 
100 
100 
75 
100 
60 

76 
89 
73 
75 
82 
82 
81 
62 
81 
84 

120 

"36" 
65 
150 
75 

ioo 

100 
125 
60 
100 

The  figures  give  us  further  evidence  that  under  present  meth- 
ods of  teaching  spelling,  a  larger  amount  of  time  spent  upon 
the  subject  is  not  necessarily  rewarded  by  better  results.  In 
grade  three  the  two  schools  that  made  the  lowest  scores  give  the 
most  time  to  the  subject.  In  grade  four  the  two  schools  attain- 
ing highest  averages  do  so  on  a  15  minute  daily  allotment.  The 
lowest  score  was  made  on  a  schedule  of  20  minutes  per  day. 
The  highest  fifth  grade  score  occurred  in  a  school  giving  only 
10  minutes  per  day  to  the  subject  and  the  lowest  in  one  giving 
25  minutes  per  day.  The  school  giving  the  most  time  to  spell- 
ing, 175  minutes  per  week  or  35  minutes  per  day,  attained  an 
average  score  of  only  52%.  The  two  best  scores  in  the  sixth 
were  made  in  schools  giving  75  and  50  minutes  respectively  per 
week,  i.  e.,  15  and  10  minutes  per  day.  The  school  which  gives 
200  minutes  per  week  attains  a  score  only  slightly  above  the 
average  of  the  ten  schools.  Again  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  some  of  the  highest  scores  were  attained  where  the  time 
allotments  are  relatively  short  and  some  of  the  lowest  scores 
were  made  at  a  relatively  high  time  cost. 

The  figures  of  Tables  17  and  18  seem  to  indicate  that  in  these 
schools  at  least  the  results  bear  little  relation  to  the  time  given 


36  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

to  spelling.     The  correlations  by  the  Foot  Rule  method  are  in- 
significant.1 

THE  SOURCES  OF  WORDS  USED  IN  SPELLING 

The  replies  to  the  question  calling  for  the  proportion  of  words 
derived  from  the  reading  text,  the  spelling  text  and  other  sources, 
indicate  that  the  first  two  of  these  are  far  more  popular  with 
teachers  than  the  third.  While  time  has  not  permitted  a  care- 
ful summary  of  the  answers  received  from  all  schools,  there  is 
sufficient  evidence  to  warrant  the  statement  that  reading  texts 
are  gvien  an  undue  prominence  as  a  source  of  spelling  material. 
It  is  not  unusual  in  lower  grades  to  find  that  all  of  the  spelling 
words  are  selected  from  the  reading  text.  In  upper  grades  the 
spelling  text  predominates  as  a  source.  There  are  very  few 
schools  that  do  not  derive  at  least  a  part  of  the  words  taught 
from  the  reader.  Of  300  rural  schools  selected  at  random,  only 
9  do  hot  use  the  reader  as  one  source  in  some  grade.  Every  one 
of  28  state  graded  schools  and  nearly  all  of  the  high  schools  and 
cities  that  answered  the  question,  select  some  words  from  read- 
ers. The  proportion  ranges  from  ' '  a  few  "  to  "  all. ' '  The  aver- 
age scores  made  on  the  test  and  the  percentage  of  words  taken 
from  the  reading  text  by  two  state  graded  schools  that  select  a 
high  proportion  from  the  reader  in  every  grade  are  shown  be- 
low. Neither  one  of  these  two  schools  comes  near  the  expected 
spelling  average  in  any  grade. 


1  Closeness  of  relationship  is  commonly  computed  mathematically  by 
certain  well  known  formulae.  While  a  considerable  number  of  cases 
should  be  used  when  computing  correlations,  the  writer  has  taken  the 
liberty  to  calculate  correlation  figures  for  Tables  17  and  18  by  the 
Spearman  Foot  Rule  method.  By  this  method  the  schools  are  ranked 
in  order  in  both  factors.  If  each  school  held  the  same  rank  in  both 
time  and  results  the  correlation  would  be  said  to  be  perfect.  Perfect 
correlation  is  represented  by  unity  or  1.  Zero  represents  no  correlation 
and  — 1  represents  perfect  negative  correlation.  The  correlation  thus 
obtained  for  Tables  17  and  18  when  converted  to  terms  of  the  Pearson 

coefficient  by  the  formula  r  =  2   cosine  —  (1 — R) — 1,  are  by  grades: 

TABLE  17 
Grade  III    f    .310 

IV  +    .490  _   Jagg 

V  —   .109  _     212 

VI  +    .448  _    "153 

VII  +    .109    .  _     448 

VIII         .0 


Ave.  -f    .208  _   .275 


Spelling 


37 


TABLE  19. — Average  Scores  and  the  Per  cent  of  Words  Derived  from  the 
Reading  Text  in  Two  State  Graded  Schools 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

vij 

VIII 

Schoo 

%R 

Ave. 

#R 

Ave. 

%R 

Ave. 

%R 

Ave. 

%  R 

Ave. 

%R 

Ave. 

A 

97 

47 

? 

72 

95 

57 

95 

65 

90 

36 

90 

69 

B 

50 

61 

86 

69 

86 

47 

86 

59 

86 

66 

86 

69 

%  R  =  per  cent  of  words  derived  from  reading  text. 

While  no  significant  conclusions  can  be  attached  to  the  re- 
sults attained  in  these  two  isolated  schools,  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  that  the  question  of  the  source  of  the  spelling  material 
and  the  results  obtained  on  the  test  are  intimately  related.  The 
unusual  prominence  given  to  the  reading  and  spelling  texts  in 
Wisconsin  appears  to  be  a  cause  contributing  to  the  poor  show- 
ings made  on  the  test.  The  writer  regrets  that  time  has  not 
permitted  the  collection  of  sufficient  detailed  evidence  on  this 
point.  Many  teachers  do  not  appear  to  realize  that  the  vocabu- 
lary of  the  language  used  in  the  reader  and  that  used  by  the 
child  in  his  writing  and  in  his  thinking  are  materially  different. 
Readers  are  written  by  adults,  and  too  often  in  the  language  of 
adults  rather  than  of  children.  Much  of  the  subject  matter 
deals  with  experiences  foreign  to  most  children.  Teachers  must 
seek  to  discover  the  words  which  children  use  when  writing  and 
that  they  will  continue  to  use  in  later  years.  These  are  the 
words  they  need  to  know  how  to  spell.  Efforts  must  be  made 
to  enlarge  the  vocabulary  used  by  children,  but  judgment  must 
be  exercised  in  developing  it  in  the  right  direction.  Precious 
time  should  not  be  taken  up  with  the  teaching  of  many  words 
which  children  will  never  have  opportunity  to  spell. 

Under  the  caption  "other  sources"  the  baneful  influence  of 
the  Wisconsin  State  Fair  list,  especially  in  rural  schools,  is  not 
infrequently  noted.  Geography,  language,  history,  agriculture, 
arithmetic  and  physiology  are  mentioned  as  other  sources  of 
material.  This  represents  an  improvement,  but  many  of  the 
words  in  these  sources  are  of  a  kind  which  the  child  will  never 
be  called  upon  to  spell  outside  of  the  schoolroom.  One  county 
superintendent  encourages  the  spelling  of  words  which  the  child 


38  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

encounters  in  the  home,  on  the  playground,  and  in  newspapers 
and  magazines.  He  reports  that  "Children  are  assigned  cer- 
tain work  such  as :  '  Bring  to  class  as  many  words  as  you  can 
which  you  find  used  in  the  kitchen,  at  the  table,  etc.'  :  Here 
again  caution  must  be  exercised  or  unnecessary  words  will  be  in- 
cluded. In  some  cases  children  are  encouraged  to  keep  note- 
books for  recording  words  which  they  do  not  know  how  to  spell. 
In  some  schools  where  good  teaching  of  spelling  was  observed, 
each  child  was  being  encouraged  to  keep  an  individual  list  of  the 
words  which  he  misspells  in  his  written  work.  This  method  of 
selecting  the  words  which  each  child  needs  to  know  should  be 
encouraged.  Some  superintendents  ask  each  teacher  to  prepare 
a  list  of  the  words  which  children  misspell  in  written  work. 
These  are  assembled  and  form  the  basic  spelling  list.  This  list 
is  then  supplemented  by  words  occurring  in  some  of  the  more 
scientific  studies  of  spelling,  such  as  those  of  Ayres,  Jones  and 
others.  Such  procedure  in  the  selection  of  spelling  material  is 
altogether  too  rare.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  results  of  the 
state-wide  test  will , bring  home  to  teachers  and  superintendents 
the  necessity  for  a  wise  and  careful  selection  of  the  words  which 
children  shall  be  taught.  Teachers  and  superintendents  will  do 
well  to  become  familiar  with  the  scientific  studies  of  common 
words  in  order  that  they  may  know  what  are  the  words  that  are 
most  commonly  used  and  the  number  of  them.  They  should 
make  a  careful  study  of  the  works  of  Jones,  Cook  and  O'Shea, 
Ayres,  Ballou,  Pryor,  Anderson,  The  Kansas  City  Committee 
on  Spelling,  and  others  of  a  similar  nature.  A  bibliography 
of  these  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  section  on  spelling. 

THE  NUMBER  OF  NEW  WORDS  TAUGHT 

Is  it  better  to  teach  a  few  new  words  each  day,  or  many? 
This  is  a  question  which  should  be  faced  squarely  by  every 
teacher  of  spelling.  It  is  doubtful  whether  many  teachers  in 
Wisconsin  give  it  serious  consideration.  If  the  best  teaching 
results  are  to  be  had  by  teaching  ten  or  more  new  words  each 
day,  then  it  is  certainly  poor  economy  to  teach  only  one  or  two. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  the  best  results  are  to  be  had  by  teaching 
a  few  words  thoroughly,  it  is  unwise  to  teach  a  large  number 
with  little  concern  for  thoroughness.  This  theory  is  supported 


Spelling 


39 


when  we  consider  the  results  of  the  test  in  the  light  of  the  num- 
ber of  words  reported  as  taught  in  each  class  of  schools.  While 
it  cannot  be  said  that  the  attempt  to  teach  too  many  words  is  the 
sole  cause  of  poor  results  in  spelling  in  Wisconsin,  it  is  no  doubt 
a  contributing  factor.  That  Wisconsin  schools  attempt  to  teach 
a  large  number  of  new  words  daily,  if  they  report  their  prac- 
tices correctly,  may  be  judged  from  Table  20. 

TABLE  20.  —  Median  Number  New  Words  Taught  per  Day 


II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Rural 

3 

5 

6 

8 

8 

10 

10 

State  Graded 

4 

(j 

6 

8 

7 

10 

10 

High  School  and  City 

3 

4 

5 

5  6 

7  8 

6  7 

6  7 

The  table  is  based  upon  the  same  165  rural  schools  referred 
to  in  the  section  dealing  with  the  time  devoted  to  spelling,  29 
state  graded  schools  and  18  high  and  city  schools.  Table  20 
gives  the  median  number  of  new  words  taught  daily  in  each  class 
of  schools.  These  figures  mean  that  one-half  of  the  schools  rep- 
resented teach  more  than  the  number  of  words  represented  by 
the  median,  and  the  other  half  teach  fewer.  From  grade  three 
1o  grade  eight  the  median  rural  school  attempts  to  teach  from 
5  to  10  new  words  daily  and  the  median  state  graded  schools 
from  6  to  10.  In  high  and  city  schools  the  median  ranges  from 
4  to  7.  These  numbers,  paticularly  in  rural  and  state  graded 
schools  are  high.  They  appear  striking  when  we  recall  that  one- 
half  of  the  schools  represented  teach  a  still  larger  number  of  new 
words  daily. 

There  are  rural  schools  for  each  grade  that  report  20  or  more 
new  words  taught,  daily.  The  highest  number  reported  from 
state  graded  schools  ranges  from  10  in  the  second  grade  to  20  in 
the  eighth.  In  high  schools  and  cities  the  Tiie^est  mimher  re- 
ported is  6  in  the  second,  10  in  the  third,  13  in  the  fourth  a^d  20 
in  grades  five,  six,  seven  and  eight.  Some  of  those  who  report 
the  largest  Cumbers  are  probably  including  words  children  have 
already  been  taught  in  some  earlier  grade.  Often,  however,  the 


40 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


teacher  has  no  knowledge  of  what  words  were  taught  in  preced- 
ing grades. 

Table  21  shows  for  the  schools  of  Table  18  the  number  of  new 
words  taught  daily  as  well  "as  the  number  of  minutes  per  day 
allotted  to  spelling  and  the  average  scores  on  the  test. 

TABLE  21.— The  Number  of  New  Words  Taught,  the  Number  of  Minvtes  per 
Day  Allotted  to  Spelling  and  the  Average  Scores  on  the  Test  in  Ten  Cities 


Citi's 

1 

2 
3 

5 
6 
7 

9 
10 

II 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

T 

W 

Av. 

T 

W 

Av. 

T 

W 

Av. 

T 

W 

Av 

T 

W 

Av 

T 

W 

Av. 

61 
71 
66 
52 
54 
65 
65 
41 
67 
73 

T 

W 

4 

8 
8 
9 
(i 
7 
Q 
(i 
9 
? 

Av. 

76 
S) 
73 
73 
82 
82 
81 
62 
81 
84 

5 

15 

1 
5 

.... 

fi 
15 
15 
24 
20 
10 
15 
SO 
20 
20 

8 
8 
5 
4 
4 
8 
?, 
5 
10 

61 

6> 
60 
47 
75 
65 
69 
51 
5J 

10 
15 
15 
20 
25 
15 
25 
25 
20 
23 

2 
5 
8 
5 
5 
5 
9 
4 
5 
13 

79 
82 
88 
73 
80 
64 
76 
67 
60 

12 
15 
10 
35 
15 
15 
15 
25 
20 
20 

5 
8 

\ 

5 
(i 
8 
5 
8 
20 

49 
72 
76 
52 
61 
60 
54 
38 
50 
74 

12 
15 
10 

40 

'20 

20 
2:-> 
12 
LO 

3 
(» 
8 
15 
8 
7 
8 
6 
8 
17 

66 
93 

87 
79 
73; 
85 
70 
67 
74 
80 

12 

17 
10 
28 
14 
20 
20 
25 
12 
17 

8 
8 
8 
(5 
7 
9 
fi 
8 

12 
17 
10 
25 
15 
20 
20 
IS 
20 
12 

24 

5 

.... 

6 

13 
30 
15 

7 
1 

3 

'.'.'.'. 

It  is  clear  that  most  of  these  schools  attempt  to  teach  more 
new  words  than  modern  theories  of  teaching  spelling  uphold. 
One  is  amazed  at  the  variations  in  the  conceptions  which  super- 
intendents have  of  the  number  of  new  words  that  should  be 
taught.  The  least  variation  from  4  to  9  occurs  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades.  The  widest  variation  is  found  in  the  fifth 
grade  where  one  school  requires  the  teaching  of  three  new  words 
daily,  and  another  twenty.  School  number  one  teaches  only  a 
few  words  daily  and  gives  but  a  small  amount  of  attention  to 
spelling.  It  made  a  rather  low  score  on  the  test.  Several  fac- 
tors may  enter  into  this  low  record.  In  the  first  place  we  have 
no  data  on  preceding  years.  While  the  words  now  taught  are  few 
in  number,  they  may  be  poorly  selected.  The  teaching  may  cen- 
ter too  largely  ut>on  unusual  words  rather  than  upon  common 
words  which  children  need  to  know  how  to  spell.  This  school 
might  profit  by  a  more  generous  time  allotment  and  a  better  se- 
lection. Finally  the  methods  of  teaching  employed  should  be 
investigated.  In  school  number  eight,  which  made  a  very  poor 
record  on  the  test,  the  number  of  new  words  taught  is  less  than 
in  most  schools  of  the  table  and  the  time  given  to  spelling  is  lib- 
eral. Poor  teaching  is  apparently  the  most  significant  cause  of 
poor  results  here. 


Spelling  41 

THE  TOTAL.  NUMBER  OF  WORDS  TO  TEACH 

At  the  rate  of  two  per  day,  approximately  2,500  words,  i.  e. 
words  tnat  are  new  and  which  present  diiiicuities,  can  be  pre- 
sented by  direct  teaching  during  the  elementary  school  course. 
Many  more  will,  of  course,  be  learned  incidentally.  At  the  rate 
ot  ten  per  day,  this  number  would  be  increased  oy  10,000.  The 
latter  is  a  figure  much  larger  than  necessary  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  child's  written  vocabulary.  Careful  studies  of  the  writ- 
ing vocabulary  of  children  and  adults  indicate  that  the  words 
which  people  use  are  fewer  in  number  than  we  ordinarily  sup- 
pose. Jones1  found  only  4532  different  words  used  in  the  75,000 
themes  written  by  1,050  children  in  grades  two  to  eight  inclu- 
sive. No  child  used  more  than  2,812.  Ayres,2  in  a  study  of  the 
spelling  vocabulary  of  2,000  personal  and  business  letters,  found 
542  common  words.  Cook  and  O'Shea3  found  5,200  different 
words  in  the  family  correspondence  of  13  adults.  Eldridge4 
records  6,002  different  words  in  a  total  of  43,989  words  which 
occurred  on  two  pages  of  each  of  four  Sunday  papers  of  Buf- 
falo. This  number  would  have  been  somewhat  smaller  had  he 
not  included  as  separate  words  every  form  or  variation  of  each 
word  that  occurred.  The  teachers  in  Boston5  working  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Ballou  found  840  words  that  proved  to  be 
difficult  for  pupils  to  spell  in  their  written  work.  These  form 
the  minimum  list  for  the  Boston  schools.  2,542  additional 
words  are  used  to  form  a  supplementary  list.  In  an  extended 
investigation  of  the  ' '  words  actually  used  and  missed  by  pupils ' ' 
in  original  compositions,  the  teachers  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,°  un- 
der the  direction  of  Mr.  Melcher  found  1,926  words  missed  three 
times  or  more.  This  list  has  recently  been  increased  to  3,262. 
Anderson7  in  a  recent  study  at  the  University  of  Iowa  analyzed 


1  Jones.      Concrete    Tnvp'-tirrqtion    of   the    Material    of    English    Spelling. 
W.   F.    .Tone*.   V^rmiU'on.    S.   D. 

2  Ayres.     Spelling  Vocabulary  of  Personal   and  Business  Letters. 

3  Cook    tt    O'Shea.     The    Child    and    His    Spelling — Bobbs.    Merrill    Co., 
Indianapolis. 

4  "Eldridge.     Six    Thousand    Common     English    Words — Niagara    Falls, 
1911. 

5  Boston.     Spelling.     Dept.  of  Educ.  Investigation  &  Measurement,  Bui. 
I  &  TV. 

6  Kansas  City.     Preliminary  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Spelling,   Re- 
search   Bulletin,    No.    2.    1916.     Also    final    report    of    the    Committee    on 
spelling,    1917.      (Unpublished.) 

7Amle^bn,    W.    N.     The    determination    of    spelling    vocabulary    based 
upon  written  correspondence.     Univ.   of  Iowa  Doctor's  Dissertation,  1917. 


42  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

the  written  correspondence  of  persons  over  18  years  of  age  in 
six  occupational  groups.  3,723  letters  were  collected  by  pupils 
in  23  Iowa  cities  and  villages.  The  letters  represented  361,184 
running  words,  but  77  different  words  made  up  one-half  of  the 
total  number  and  442  three-fourths  of  them.  There  were  9,223 
different  words  in  all,  3,217  of  which  were  used  only  once.  Mr. 
Anderson  selected  3,105  words  for  his  final  list  choosing  those 
that  occurred  in  three  or  more  of  the  occupational  groups  and 
with  a  total  frequency  of  five  or  more.  Starch2  tabulated  1,000 
running  words  from  each  of  40  contributors  to  current  maga- 
zines. He  found  5,903  different  words,  1,783  of  which  occurred 
three  or  more  times.  Words  appearing  less  than  three  times 
were  not  placed  in  the  final  list  unless  they  occurred  in  the  study 
of  either  Ayres,  Jones,  Eldridge  or  Cook  and  O'Shea  at  least 
three  times  and  were  found  by  another  of  them  at  least  once. 
His  final  list  contains  2,626  words. 

The  results  of  all  but  the  three  last  mentioned  and  of 
seven  other  lists  have  been  summarized  by  Pryor.3  He  finds 
only  1,309  words  occurring  in  six  or  more  of  twelve  lists.  All 
of  these  studies  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  writing  vocabularies 
are  limited  and  nowhere  nearly  as  comprehensive  as  the  ordinary 
spelling  text  would  have  us  believe.  This  makes  it  incumbent 
upon  teachers  to  exercise  caution  in  selecting  the  words  to  be 
taught  as  spelling.  While  several  of  the  studies  referred  to 
above  may  be  criticised  on  the  ground  that  they  omit  some  rather 
common  words,  it  is  probable  that  the  needs  of  most  children 
will  be  satisfied  when  they  acquire  a  writing  vocabulary  of  three 
to  four  thousand  words.  This  does  not  mean  that  a  child  is  to 
be  taught  to  think  entirely  in  terms  of  ideas  that  can  be  expressed 
by  this  number  of  words.  A  distinction  must  be  made  between 
teaching  words  to  be  spelled  and  teaching  words  for  growth  in 
vocabulary  and  in  ideas.  Many  of  the  latter  he  will  not  need 
to  learn  to  spell.  He  should  be  taught  to  .spell  those  words 
which  he  is  likely  to  use  in  writing. 


2  An  unpublished   study   of  the   vocabulary   of   current  literary  writers 
by  Daniel   Starch,  University   of  Wisconsin. 

3  Pryor.     A   suggested    minimal    spelling    list.     Sixteenth    Yearbook    of 
"he  National  Society  for  the   Study  of   Education,  Part   I,   Public  School 
publishing-  Company,  Bloomington,   111.,  1917. 


Spelling  43 

THE  METHODS  USED  IN  TEACHING  SPELLING 

Undoubtedly  one  significant  cause  of  poor  spelling  is  poor 
teaching.  It  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  the  supervisory 
staff  of  the  State  Department  of  Education,  that  spelling  is  one 
of  the  poorest  taught  subjects  in  the  curriculum.  The  work  of 
hundreds  of  teachers  is  observed  in  the  classroom  each  year,  but 
comparatively  few  teachers  are  found  who  teach  spelling  well. 
In  fact  it  may  be  said  that  in  a  large  percentage  of  the  cases, 
spelling  is  not  taught  at  all.  The  assignment  of  the  lesson  is 
frequently  of  this  type:  "Take  the  first  column  of  words  on 
page  eighteen. ' '  After  ten  minutes  permitted  for  study,  a  writ- 
ten test  is  given  on  the  list  of  ten  words.  A  pupil  who  has  ten 
correct  receives  a  mark  of  one  hundred  for  the  day,  and  one 
who  misspells  three  words  receives  a  mark  of  seventy.  Here  the 
lesson  ends.  The  next  day  the  same  routine  procedure  is  re- 
peated. This  is  not  teaching,  and  no  teacher  should  receive  a 
salary  for  such  gross  incompetency. 

Some  of  the  more  successful  teachers  of  spelling  first  of  all 
exercise  wisdom  hi  selecting  the  material  to  be  taught.  Second, 
they  attempt  to  adapt  the  material  used  to  the  needs  of  the  indi- 
vidual children  in  the  class.  There  is  little  merit  in  requiring 
a  pupil  to  spend  time  in  studying  words  which  he  already  knows 
how  to  spell.  To  expect  him  to  divide  his  time  equally  between 
each  of  the  words  in  a  spelling  list  is  sheer  waste  of  valuable 
time.  His  time  should  be  spent  upon  those  which  he  does  not 
is  now,  with  the  greater  emphasis  upon  the  more  difficult  of  these 
words.  The  studies  of  Buckingham1  and  Ayres2  have  indicated 
clearly  that  words  which  might  be  regarded  as  equally  difficult 
do  not  prove  to  be  so.  Teachers  should  seek  to  discover  which 
are  the  truly  difficult  words.  These  will  require  greater  effort 
and  more  drill  for  successful  mastery. 

Tidyman  in  the  issue  of  School  and  Society  for  June  30,  1917, 
gives  a  useful  table  for  estimating  the  relative  difficulty  of  words. 
In  this  table,  reproduced  in  a  modified  form  below,  a  word  mis- 
spelled by  97%  or  more  of  the  pupils  in  a  grade  is  considered 
as  having  a  difficulty  of  10  for  that  grade.  A  word  missed  by 


1  Buckingham:     Spelling-    Ability;    Its    Measurement    and  "Distribution, 
Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 

2  Ayres:     Measurement    of   Ability   in   Spelling,   Russell    Sage    Founda- 
tion, New  York.   1915. 


44 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tesis 


less  than  5%  in  the  third  grade  has  a  comparative  difficulty  of 
2.  Thus  a  word  missed  by  nearly  all  in  the  third  grade  is  ap- 
proximately 5  times  as  difficult  (the  ratio  of  10  to  2)  as  one  that 
nearly  all  can  spell.  In  grades  four  and  five  the  ratio  would  be 
10  to  4,  i.  e.  21/2  times  as  difficult. 

TABLE  22. — A  Table  for  Determining  the  Difficulty  of  Spelling  icords 


Per  cent  of  incorrect  spellings. 

Relative  Difficulty 

III 

IV 

V 

10 
9 
8 
7 
7 
6 
5 
4 

VI 

10 
9 
8 
8 
7 
6 
5 
5 

VII 

VIII 

100    97 

1C 
9 
8 
7 
6 
5 
4 
2 

10 

9 
8 
7 
6 
5 
4 
4 

10 
9 
9 

8 
7 
6 
6 
5 

10 
9 
9 

8 
7 
7 
6 
5 

96     89 

88-73  

72-51  

50—29  

28     13  

12      5  

4—1  

Successful  teachers  of  spelling  employ  good  teaching  methods. 
They  spend  a  greater  proportion  of  the  time  set  aside  for  spell- 
ing in  the  actual  teaching  of  spelling  and  only  a  small  part  of 
the  time  in  testing,  i.  e.  in  written  spelling.  Some  test  the  work 
of  an  entire  week  at  one  time.  Thus  four  periods  are  given  to 
teaching  and  one  to  testing.  This  not  only  allows  more  time  for 
teaching  but  affords  better  opportunity  to  discover  whether  a 
pupil  has  really  mastered  a  word. 

Successful  teachers  see  that  impelling  motives  for  wanting  to 
learn  how  to  spell  are  established.  An  appeal  is  made  to  the 
child's  normal  instincts  and  interests.  His  desire  to  learn  how 
to  spell  may  be  influenced  by  his  desire  to  excel  in  the  spelling 
recitation  or  the  spelling  contest.  It  may  be  increased  by  a 
wholesome  desire  to  be  able  to  express  himself  more  fully  in  his 
written  work.  He  may  be  interested  in  improving  his  own 
ability  to  spell,  particularly  if  he  is  taught  to  keep  records  which 
indicate  the  amount  of  his  improvement  over  a  given  period 
of  time. 

Good  spelling  teachers  are  careful  to  associate  each  new  word 
with  the  child's  previous  experience  so  that  the  word  becomes 


Spelling 


45 


full  of  meaning  for  him,  and  becomes  a  part  of  his  writing 
vocabulary.  They  make  use  of  each  of  the  avenues  of  approach 
to  children's  intellects.  Some  children  may  learn  to  spell  a  word 
more  easily  through  seeing  it  in  written  form,  and  attempting 
to  recall  the  picture  of  it  later.  Others  may  benefit  most 
through  hearing  it  pronounced  clearly  and  distinctly,  while 
others  again  may  grasp  the  sequence  of  the  letters  through  pro- 
nouncing the  word  themselves.  For  still  others,  ease  of  learn- 
ing is  facilitated  by  writing  the  word  or  tracing  it. 

A  successful  teacher  of  spelling  does  not  fail  to  take  account 
of  the  fact  that  some  parts  of  the  word  are  much  more  diffi- 
cult to  the  child  than  others.  She  trains  a  pupil  to  analyze 
each  word  which  proves  troublesome,  in  order  to  discover  the 
particular  parts  or  combination  of  letters  which  present  the  diffi- 
culty. Some  teachers  when  writing  new  words  on  the  black- 
board indicate  the  difficult  parts  by  colored  crayons.  The  need 
of  examining  words  for  their  difficult  parts  may  be  illustrated 
from  a  few  test  papers.  The  different  frequencies  of  the  several 
misspellings  which  occurred  on  these  words  serves  to  indicate 
that  some  parts  of  a  word  are  much  more  difficult  to  master  than 
others.  The  incorrect  spellings  by  258  eighth  grade  pupils  on 
10  selected  words  and  the  frequency  of  each  misspelling  are 
given  in  Table  23. 

TABLE  23. — Shotving  the  Misspellings  by  258  Eighth  Grade  Pupils  on  Ten 
Selected  Words  and  the  Frequency  of  Each  Misspelling 


earliest 

probley         3 

divide 

hojiiiiiiinji 

earlyest 

17 

probablly     3 

devide       18 

begining      57 

earlest 

12 

probable       2 

devid 

beg-enning     4 

ealiest 

2 

probbably    2 

devive 

beganing       2 

earlist 

10 

probely         2 

divid 

begianing      2 

earlists 

4 

probibly       2 

begening- 

earleist 

propaly         2 

responsible 

beginng 

earleast 

probabilv 

responcible      13 

beginniging 

earlyiest 

probabaly 

responsable     10 

beg-niner 

eariliest 
earliest 

probabley 
probabyly 

responseable    5 
respondsible     4 

begging 
beggining 

earilist 

probily 

responible          5 

begaining 

earilistist 

probobly 

responable         2 

begeaning 

eariest 

probbely 

responcibel 

difficulty 

earlerest 

probabfly 

responsuble 

dificulty     18 

earlys 

probbubly 

responsble 

diffuculty    9 

earlry 

probiablly 

responsibble 

diffaculty     7 

erleast 

problably 

responsibly 

difficullty     4 

elarelest 

problay 

responcia"ble 

difficulty       4 

ealerist 

probably 

probaly 
probly 

20 
17 

proberably 
proubably 
propably 
propibly 

responsiable 
responiable 
responisable 
respondsable 
respounsiple 

difucalty      3 
difficulity     2 
difaculty      2 
diffeculty     2 
difficult 

probbly 

9 

propley 

respuancable 

dlficult 

probally 

6 

brobely 

difficultie 

46 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


difficultly 

finanlly 

respectivaly 

nessaceray 

dificulity 

finial 

respeatfuly 

nessecry 

difficulty 

respacile 

nessecty 

difficulting 

respectfully 

reseptfuly 

nesesary 

difficality 

respectfuly     14 

receptfully 

nesecery- 

diffacullty 

respectably 

5 

repefully 

nesacesary 

diffaculity 

respectifuly 

3 

refebling 

neseratory 

diffucalty 

respectively 

3 

nesser 

diffucaly 

respectually 

3 

necessary 

neccasary 

diffulty 

respectufuly 

2 

neccessary 

14 

neccisary 

diffuclt 

respectifully 

2 

nessary 

10 

neccecary 

diffculity 
difcolty 
defuclity 
deffeculty 
divaculty 
differculity 

respectally 
respectly 
respectibly 
rspecfuly 
respecfully 
respectufully 
respectully 

2 
2 
2 
2 

2 

nessesery 
nessecery 
nessessary 
nescessary 
nessisary 
nessasary 

6 
4 
4 
4 
3 
3 

neccessary 
neccary 
nececcary 
necesarry 
necacery 
necessisary 
necessarily 

finnllv 

respectafully 

neccesary 

3 

neceessary 

muBuy 
finaly      43 

respecfuly 

nesscary 

2 

necceary 

•fi-nplv        11 

respecufuly 

nesseccary 

2 

neasary 

nnciy        J-A 
finnally  11 
flnnaly     5 

respicfully 
respectiful 
respectbly 

neseccary 
nesessary 
nesscessary 

2 

2 

receive 

recieve        54 

flnialy       4 

respectable 

necssary 

2 

recive            5 

flnially     2 

respectubly 

nessesary 

recieved       2 

final 

respectaly 

nessacary 

recived 

finily 

respectlly 

nessicary 

recivice 

finealy 

respectiveally 

nessacery 

receieve 

In  the  word  earliest  the  most  frequent  misspelling  occurs  in 
the  letters  lie.  The  ear  and  st  are  much  oftener  correct.  Incor- 
rect pronunciation  seems  to  account  for  such  misspelling  of 
probably  as  probaly  given  twenty  times  and  probly  fifteen  times. 
Of  the  51  children  who  misspelled  responsible,  42  did  so  on  the 
letterscsi;  16  used  c  instead  of  s.  The  parts  respon  and  "ble  were 
usually  correct.  Beginning  illustrates  the  difficulty  of  the 
double  consonant.  67  of  the  73  pupils  who  spelled  the  word 
incorrectly  neglected  to  double  the  n.  In  difficulty  incorrect 
vowels,  and  neglecting  to  double  the  /  account  for  the  principal 
misspellings.  In  finally  most  children  who  erred  knew  the  first 
three  and  the  last  two  letters  but  they  did  not  know  what  comes 
in  between.  They  doubled  the  n  or  did  not  double  the  Z  or  they 
had  difficulty  with  the  vowel  a.  One  source  of  error  on  respect- 
fully is  in  the  double  I  but  another  is  undoubtedly  due  to  not 
knowing  the  pronunciation  of  the  word.  Substitutions  of  s  for  c 
or  vice  versa  and  double  consonants  appear  to  be  the  most  fre- 
quent causes  of  incorrect  spelling  on  necessary.  The  chief 
difficulty  in  divide  is  in  the  first  vowel  given  as  e.  Another 
error  comes  through  the  silent  letter.  Receive  was  most  often 
misspelled  as  recieve.  Familiarity  with  the  rule  that  e  precedes 
i  nfter  c  would  help  these  childern. 

This  study  of  incorrect  spellings  indicates  very  clearly  that 
not  the  entire  word  but  distinct  parts  of  it  cause  misspellings. 


Spelling  47 

Very  rarely  does  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  a  word  offer 
difficulties.  The  difficulty  may  arise  from  double  consonants, 
obscure  or  silent  letters,  pronunciation,  vowels  or  consonants 
pronounced  alike.  Another  cause  of  misspelling  not  illustrated 
by  these  words  is  that  of  homonyms. 

In  addition  to  the  points  already  indicated  in  good  teaching 
of  spelling,  it  should  be  noted  that  many  successful  teachers  do 
not  expect  to  teach  children  all  the  words  they  will  ever  use. 
They  train  the  pupils  to  use  the  dictionary  when  uncertain  as  to 
the  spelling  of  a  word.  They  acquaint  pupils  with  a  very  few 
of  the  simplest  rules. 

CONCLUSIONS 

1.  The  schools  of  each  class  represented,  fail  to  reach  the  ex- 
pected spelling  average  in  any  grade. 

2.  There  is  a  wide  range  in  the  average  scores  made,  indicat- 
ing that  results  are  much  more  satisfactory  in  some  schools  than 
in  others. 

3.  There  is  a  wide  range  in  the  spelling  abilities  shown  by 
pupils  nominally  classed  as  being  of  the  same  grade.     In  nearly 
every  grade  there  are  some  children  who  failed  entirely.     There 
are  others  in  every  grade  who  made  perfect  scores.     Being  in  a 
grade  apparently  means  little  as  far  as  spelling  is  concerned. 

4.  Among  high  schools  and  cities  there  are  few  schools  that 
attain  expected  average  standings  in  any  grade,  even  when  due 
allowance  is  made  for  the  time  of  the  year  when  the  test  was 
piven.     Comparatively  few  reach  the  expected  average  in  any 
grade. 

5.  There  is  a  wide  difference  in  the  time  allotted  upon  the 
weekly  program  to  spelling.     The  time  most  commonly  allotted 
in  each  class  of  schools  is:     rural  50  minutes;  state  graded  75 
minutes;  high  schools  and  cities,  75  minutes. 

6.  Schools  vary  widely  in  the  number  of  new  words  which 
they  attempt  to  teach  per  week.     The  median  numbers  in  rural 
and  state  graded  schools  are  higher  than  in  high  schools  and 
cities.     The  median  numbers  for  the  various  grades  vary  in 
rural  schools  from  5  in  the  third  grade  to  10  in  the  eighth,  in 
state  graded  schools  from  6  in  the  third  to  10  in  the  eighth,  and 
in  high  schools  and  cities  from  4  in  the  third  to  7  in  the  eighth. 


48  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

1.  The  principal  sources  of  words  used  are  the  reading  text 
and  the  spelling  text. 

8.  Among  the  apparent  causes  of  poor  results  in  spelling  are: 

a.  The  attempt  to  teach  a  large  number  of  new  words 

each  day  rather  than  a  few  words  well. 

b.  The  selection  of  words  largely  from  the  reading  and 

spelling  texts,  and  with  little  regard  for  pupils' 
need  of  knowing  how  to  spell  them. 

c.  Improper  grading  of  the  children. 

d.  Inefficient  teaching  of  spelling,  including : 

(1)  A  disregard  for  differences  in  the  individual 

needs  and  the  ease  with  which  children  may 
be  taught. 

(2)  A  disregard  for  differences  in  the  difficulty 

of  the  words  taught. 

(3)  A  disregard  for  differences  in  the  difficulty  of 

the  different  parts  of  a  word. 

(4)  An  entire  absence  of  actual  teaching  in  maiiy 

cases. 

(5)  A   poor    command   of   the   technique   of    the 

teaching  process. 

e.  Failure  to  teach  spelling  as  a  regular  subject. 


EECOMMENDATIONS 

1.  That  the  time  devoted  to  spelling,  including  both  study  and 
recitation,  be  15  minutes  per  day  in  all  grades  above  the  second. 

2.  That  teachers  attempt,  through  the  direct  teaching  of  spell- 
ing, to  equip  children  with  a  vocabulary  of  3,000  to  4,000  com- 
mon words.     Not  more  than  four  new  words  should  be  taught 
daily. 

3.  That  in  selecting  the  words  to  be  taught,  the  more  scientific 
studies  of  spelling  vocabulary  be  freely  consulted. 

4.  That  the  reading  text  be  rarely  used  as  a  source  of  words 
to  be  taught  for  spelling,  and  that  only  such  spelling  textbooks 
be  used  as  are  based  upon  scientific  inquiry  as  to  the  words  which 
children  need  to  learn  how  to  spell. 

5.  That  teachers  require  each  pupil  to  keep  an  individual  list 
of  the  common  words  which  he  misspells  in  written  work,  and 
that  this  means  be  used  to  discover  the  individual  needs  of  each 
child. 


Spelling  49 

6.  That  the  results  of  studies  in  the  relative  difficulty  of  words 
be  freely  consulted  in  order  to  determine  more  fully  the  relative 
teaching  efforts  to  be  devoted  to  different  words. 

7.  That  wherever  feasible,  pupils  be  grouped  for  the  purpose 
of  spelling  with  others  of  somewhere  near  their  own  ability,  irre- 
spective of  the  normal  grade  in  which  they  may  belong. 

8.  That  in  the  teaching  of  spelling,  modern  methods  of  pre- 
sentation be  used. 

a.  First  of  all,  care  should  be  exercised  to  develop  im- 

pelling motives  within  the  pupils  for  wanting  to 
know  how  to  spell,  e.  g.  those  produced  by  such 
factors  as  interest  in  improvement,  rivalry,  and  the 
desire  to  express  one's  self  more  fully. 

b.  Second,  each  new  word  should  be  carefully  associated 

with  the  child's  own  experience  so  that  he  may 
understand  its  uses. 

c.  Third,  each  of  the  known  avenues  of  approach  should 

be  utilized.  Appeals  should  be  made  through  the 
<\v<\  the  ear,  the  vocal  cords,  and  the  hand. 

d.  Fourth,  pupils  should  be  taught  the  habit  of  analyz- 

ing a  word  for  its  difficult  parts  and  to  concentrate 
upon  the  particular  syllables,  or  letter  combina- 
tions, which  make  the  word  difficult. 

SOME  SUGGESTED  REFERENCES 
The  Words  To  Teach 

Anderson,  W.  N.  The  Determination  of  a  Spelling  Vocabulary  Based 
Upon  Written  Correspondence.  University  of  Iowa,  Department  of 
Education,  Doctor's  Dissertation.  Contains  in  addition  a  brief  re- 
view of  all  important  previous  studies  of  spelling  vocabularies. 

Ayres,  Leonard  P.  Measuring  Scale  for  Ability  in  Spelling.  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  Division  of  Education,  N.  Y.  Contains  1,000 
common  words. 

Boston,  Department  of  Educational  Investigation  and  Measurement 
Bulletin  No.  I  or  No.  IV,  Spelling.  Contains  minimum  and  sup- 
lementary  lists. 

Cook  &  O'Shea.  The  Child  and  His  Spelling.  Bobbs  Merrill  Co.,  N. 
Y.  Contains  a  list  of  words  used  in  family  correspondence. 

Eldridge,  R.  C.  Six  Thousand  Common  English  Words.  R.  C.  Eld- 
ridge,  Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y. 

Johnstown,  Pa.  List  of  Words  Selected  by  the  Teachers  of  Johnstown, 
Pennsylvania.  Contains  words  used  in  daily  lessons. 

Jones,  F.  W.  Concrete  Investigation  of  the  Material  of  English  Spell- 
ing. Vermillion,  S.  D.  Contains  words  found  in  written  themes. 

Kansas  City,  Mo.  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Spelling. 
Research  Bulletin  No.  2.  Contains'  words  which  children  use  and 
misspell  in  original  compositions.  See  also  mimeographed  final 
report  of  the  committee. 


50  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

Pryor,  H.  C.  A  Suggested  Minimal  Spelling  List  in  Sixteenth  Year 
Boole,  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education.  Public  School 
Publishing  Co.,  Bloomington,  111. 

Starch,  Daniel.  List  of" words  derived  from  literary  productions,  Sil- 
ver Burdett  &  Co.  (in  press) 

Determining  the  Difficulty  of  Words 

Ayres,  L.  P.  Measuring  Scale  for  Ability  in  Spelling.  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  N.  Y. 

Boston,  Department  of  Educational  Investigation  and  Measurement 
Bulletin  No.  IV.  Spelling,  Determining  the  Difficulty  of  Spelling 
Words. 

Buckingham,  IB.  R.  Spelling  Ability:  Its  Measurement  and  Distribu- 
tion. Bureau  of  Publications,  Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 

Methods  of  Teaching  Spelling 

Boston,  Department  of  Educational  Investigation  and  Measurement. 
Bulletin  No.  XI.  The  Teaching  of  Spelling. 

Buckingham,  B.  R.  Spelling.  This  is  Chapter  III  in  Teaching  Ele- 
mentary School  Subjects,  by  Rapeer  and  Others.  Published  by 
Scribners. 

Charters,  W.  W.  Teaching  the  Common  Branches,  Chapter  I.  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co. 

Cook  &  O'Shea.     The  Child  and  His  Spelling.     Bobbs  Merrill  Co. 

Janesville,  An  Educational  Survey  of.  See  Chapters  VIII  and  XIII. 
State  Department  of  Public  Instruction,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 

Suzzallo  and  Pearson.  Comparative  Experimental  Teaching  in  Spell- 
ing, Teachers  College  Record,  Nov.  1911. 

Suzzallo,  Henry.     The  Teaching  of  Spelling.    Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Wisconsin  Manual  of  the  Elementary  Course  of  Study,  Spelling.  De- 
partment of  Public  Instruction,  Madison,  Wisconsin. 


CHAPTER  II 

ARITHMETIC 

Arithmetic  is  a  "tool"  subject.  For  that  reason  if  for  no 
other  it  should  be  taught  in  the  most  economical  manner  possible. 
It  is  not  uncommon  for  schools  to  devote  as  much  as  one-sixth 
of  the  entire  school  time  of  the  elementary  grades  to  the  subject 
of  arithmetic.  The  wisdom  of  such  a  profuse  time  allotment  is 
questioned  by  school  men  and  women.  Their  Questions  are 
mainly  three:  (1)  "Is  it  necessary  that  the  course  of  study  in- 
clude as  much  arithmetic  as  it  now  does?"  (2)  "Is  this  gen- 
erous time  allotment  rewarded  by  a  corresponding  success  in 
arithmetical  achievements  of  the  children?",  and  (3)  "Is  so 
much  time  required  to  attain  such  success?"  The  first  of  these 
questions  has  been  propounded  for  some  years  and  is  resulting 
in  the  elimination  of  some  subject  matter  regarded  as  nonprac- 
tical.  Careful  students  predict  a  much  greater  elimination  than 
has  yet  taken  place.  How  far  this  can  be  carried  is  yet  to  be  de- 
termined by  experimentation.  The  standard  tests  given  in  Wis- 
consin schools  in  1916-17  have  among  other  things  attempted  to 
answer  in  part  the  second  of  these  questions.  The  data  gath- 
ered in  answer  to  question  two  serves  to  throw  some  light  on 
question  three. 

In  measuring  success  in  arithmetical  achievement  certain 
standardized  tests  have  gained  rather  wide  usage.  For  measur- 
ing the  work  in  fundamental  operations  at  least  two  series  of 
tests  are  in  common  use.  These  are  the  Courtis  and  the  Woody 
tests.  For  measuring  success  in  reasoning  problems  a  number 
of  tests  have  been  devised,  the  best  known  being  the  Stone  test. 
The  Courtis  tests  consist  of  a  series  of  relatively  simple  examples 
in  the  four  fundamental  operations  of  addition,  subtraction, 
multiplication  and  division.  With  these  tests  successful  achieve- 
ment is  measured  by  the  speed  with  which  the  examples  are 


52  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

solved.  The  number  of  Wisconsin  schools  reporting  their  re- 
sults on  the  Courtis  tests  in  1916-17  was  not  sufficient  to  war- 
rant us  in  discussing  the  results  at  this  time. 

The  Woody  tests  in  the  fundamentals  consist  of  a  series  of 
four  tests,  one  for  each  of  the  fundamental  operations.  The  ex- 
amples in  these  tests  are  so  selected  as  to  include  a  variety  of 
types  from  very  simple  to  relatively  difficult  examples.  Achieve- 
ment on  the  Woody  tests  may  be  measured  by  the  difficulty  of 
the  examples  which  a  given  class  can  solve,  or  by  the  number  of 
examples  solved.  The  latter  gives  a  fairly  accurate  indication 
of  the  difficulty  of  the  examples  which  the  class  can  solve.  The 
nature  of  these  tests  may  be  judged  more  fully  from  the  repro- 
duction of  the  test  in  multiplication  which  follows. 

Multiplication 

d>  ^2)  (3)  (4)  (5)  (6)  (7) 

3X7=  5*1=  2X3=  4X8=  23  810  7X9  = 

3  4 

(8)  (9)  (10)  (11)  (12)  (13)  (14)  (15) 

50  254  623  103«i  5096  8754  165  235 

3  6  7  8  6  8  40  23 

(16)       (17)      (18)       (19)      (20)      (21)  (22) 

7898        145       24       -9.6       287       24         8  X  5*  = 
9        206       234         4       .05       2* 

(23)       (24)       (25)        (26)      (27)      (28)        (29) 

li  X  8  =     16     5Xf=      9742      6.25     .0123       4X2  = 

21  .      59      3.2       9.8 

(30)          (31)  (32)  (33)  (54) 

2.49        12   15         6  dollars  49  cents      24  X  3i  =        4  X  4  = 
36        —  X  —  =  8 

to   32 

(35)          (36)  (37)  (38)  (St) 

987!        3  ft.  5  In.       2i  X  44  X  14  =         .09634         8  ft.  94  in. 
25  5  .084  9 


THE  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  WISCONSIN  CHILDREN  ON  THE  WOODY 

TESTS 

Fifteen  cities  reported  their  results  in  addition;  sixteen  in 
subtraction;  fifteen  in  multiplication  and  seventeen  in  division. 
In  some  cities  each  of  the  four  tests  were  given  and  in  others 
only  one  or  two.  The  returns  represent  twenty-one  cities  in  all. 
The  writer  directed  and  assisted  superintendents  and  principals 
in  the  giving  of  the  tests  in  all  but  three  of  these  cities.  In  these 
three  cities  the  tests  were  given  by  principals  or  superintend- 


Arithmetic  53 

ents  after  a  conference  with  the  writer  in  which  the  details  of 
giving  and  scoring  were  discussed.  The  test  sheets  were  cor- 
rected by  the  teachers  who  were  provided  with  a  set  of  answers. 
They  were  instructed  to  check  the  papers  a  second  time.  In  a 
few  cities  the  papers  were  examined  by  a  second  person.  This 
should  have  been  done  in  all.  However,  in  a  number  of  schools 
a  casual  examination  of  papers  to  detect  inaccuracies  in  scoring 
seemed  to  indicate  that  errors  of  this  sort  approximately  bal- 
anced each  other,  i.  e.,  as  many  were  scored  too  low  as  too  high.1 
It  is  possible  that  in  some  schools  the  rating  of  papers  by  teach- 
ers has  resulted  in  scores  that  are  too  high. 

The  distribution  of  the  scores  on  the  test  for  each  fundamental 
operation  is  shown  in  the  tables  following.  These  tables  indi- 
cate the  number  of  children  in  each  grade  solving  each  of  the 
possible  numbers  correctly,  e.  g.  The  distribution  for  the  ad- 
dition test  reads  as  follows :  In  grade  three,  five  pupils  had  none 
correct,  seven  had  one  correct,  four  had  two  correct,  etc.  In 
grade  four  two  pupils  had  four  correct,  one  had  five  correct,  etc. 
The  total  number  of  pupils  tested  in  each  grade,  the  median 
scores  and  Woody 's  standard  median  scores  are  shown  at  the 
foot  of  each  table. 


1  There  are  those  wfco  would  have  all  papers  corrected  by  disinterested 
parties  but  in  that  case  much  of  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  a  test 
is  lost  to  the  teacher  who  has  little  opportunity  to  discover  the  peculiar 
weaknesses  of  the  children  in  her  class.  The  best  results  will  be  had 
where  careful  directions  are  given  to  the  teacher  who  scores  the  papers 
for  her  own  room,  and  where  all  papers  are  carefully  rechecked  by  a 
single  person. 


54 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


TABLE  24. — Distribution  of  Scores  in  Woody  Arithmetic  Test  Series  A. 
According  to  Number  of  Examples  Correct 


Addition 


Subtraction 


No. 
problems 
correct 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

No. 

problems 
correct 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VII 

o 

5 

0 

g 

3 

1 

7 

1 

28 

10 

1 

1 

2 

4 

2 

27 

5 

3 

3 

7 

3 

16 

6 

2 

2 

4 

9 

2 

4 

7 

6 

1 

1 

5 

17 

1 

5 

12 

9 

6 

17 

6 

15 

8 

2 

2 

7 

20 

1 

1 

7 

31 

10 

2 

1 

g 

24 

2 

8 

42 

14 

2 

1 

9 

45 

5 

2 

9 

62 

18 

1 

10 

67 

11 

2 

10 

99 

29 

g 

3 

1 

11 

81 

g 

3 

11 

134 

35 

Q 

4. 

1 

12 

114 

14 

4 

3 

1 

12 

109 

50 

8 

7 

4 

13 

92 

18 

g 

1 

1 

13 

149 

52 

19 

3 

1 

14 

98 

42 

10 

14 

110 

73 

20 

9 

1 

15 

98 

64 

21 

1 

15 

107 

9? 

38 

12 

4 

16 

17 

118 
96 

88 
115 

37 
35 

4 
12 

3 

2 
1 

16 

17 

90 
82 

ill 

111 

36 

87 

6 
26 

3 

18 

91 

134 

66 

10 

3 

18 

43 

123 

103 

30 

8 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 

93 
86 
54 
42 
20 
4 
5 
1 

126 
143 
170 
124 
101 
67 
39 
21 
9 
9 

79 
109 
141 
132 
126 
87 
68 
73 
44 
49 

33 
33 

44 
64 
79 
96 
88 
76 
86 
84 

5 
8 
15 
25 
18 
37 
34 
44 
61 
77 

5 
1 
8 
9 
16 
19 
30 
32 
43 
51 

19 

20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 

44 
26 
22 
3 
2 
1 

156 
148 
118 
56 
37 
23 
6 
5 
1 

127 
184 
154 
130 
119 
60 
40 
28 
19 
15 

57 
58 
63 
73 
97 
103 
107 
105 
99 
98 

10 
21 
22 
32 
52 
52 
69 
92 
98 
91 

( 

I 
1 
2 
2, 
2< 
21 
5' 
ft 
8 

29 
30 
31 

11 
1 
4 

29 
31 
26 

101 
93 

99 

68 

89 
108 

45 
66 

93 

29 
30 
31 



""z 

7 
3 
1 

99 
69 
33 

83 
83 

92 

95 

U: 

& 

32 

22 

76 

123 

126 

32 

00 

33 

11 

81 

108 

111 

33 

25 

60 

g; 

34 

1 

5 

67 

102 

110 

34 

1 

18 

43 

g. 

35 

5 

51 

109 

130 

35 

5 

22 

B 

36 

3 

24 

81 

111 

37 

1 

21 

38 

70 

38 

Q 

21 

35 

39 

1 

Total    

1,315 

1,332 

1,230 

1,333 

1,178 

1,116 

Total    

1,269 

1,317 

1,227 

1,256 

1,020 

93; 

Median    ... 
Woody's 
Standard 
Median... 

15.5 
14.5 

20.2 
18.3 

22.7 
23.1 

28.4 
29.8 

31.9 
32.4 

33.1 
34.0 

Median    ... 
!  Woody's 
1     Standard 
Median... 

13.3 
11.2 

18.1 
15.7 

20.8 
20.4 

25.6 
25.0 

28.4 
28.5 

30.1 
31.' 

Arithmetic 


§5 


*TABLE  25. — Distribution  of  Scores  in  Woody  Arithmetic  Test  Series  A. 
According  to  Number  of  Examples  Correct 


Multiplication 


Division 


No. 
problems 
correct 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

No. 
problems 
correct 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

67 

o 

18 

11 

I 

PC 

1 

1 

1 

23 

g 

2 

44 

3 

..... 

2 

32 

g 

1 

3 

88 

5 

1 

3 

27 

20 

1 

1 

4 

87 

g 

1 

4 

29 

17 

3 

on 

18 

7 

5 

44 

21 

3 

Q 

7Q 

31 

Q 

2 

Q 

38 

37 

9 

1 

7 

80 

31 

4 

7 

45 

46 

10 

1 

8 
g 

64 

58 

49 
40 

5 
9 

2 

2 

2 



8 
9 

45 
51 

78 
101 

20 
32 

4 
4 

1 

1 

10 

35 

57 

11 

3 

10 

42 

148 

35 

10 

2 

11 

50 

69 

11 

2 

11 

31 

145 

40 

11 

1 

1 

12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 

37 
24 
23 
15 
14 
13 
7 
8 
2 
5 
1 

83 

TO 

97 

93 
100 
& 
9 
6- 
53 
£ 
18 
17 
10 
t> 
2 
3 

20 
42 

£ 

83 
110 
148 
129 
133 
102 
74 
52 
32 
28 
22 
17 
8 

2 
4 
11 
13 
11 
22 
35 
37 
50 
58 
45 
54 
73 
77 
82 
86 
103 

1 
2 
1 

4 
2 
3 

4 
4 
1 
14 
13 
21 
28 
30 
49 
68 
•  72 

1 
1 
1 
1 

-*T 

2 
1 

3 

5 
8 
13 
5 
14 
15 
40 
41 

12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 

22 
14 
9 
3 
3 
4 

179 
154 
141 
118 
104 
93 
84 
55 
51 
47 
46 
31 
23 
17 
3 
2 
1 

74 
82 
78 
94 
88 
98 
109 
116 
134 
104 
102 
104 
80 
61 
70 
38 
28 

15 
15 
27 
27 
31 
52 
51 
54 
79 
79 
105 
111 
122 
115 
128 
118 
94 

5 
3 
6 
11 
8 
16 
16 
26 
37 
43 
47 
75 
93 
93 
101 
113 
135 

1 
2 
1 
5 
3 
6 
7 
22 
21 
22 
30 
34 

li- 
es 

72 
90 
108 

Xb 

1 

9 

£3 

86 

58 

-29 

1 

22 

95 

110 

131 

30 

4 

75 

95 

65 

30 

16 

88 

138 

117 

31 

2 

84 

91 

73 

31 

15 

61 

100 

141 

32 

3 

58 

88 

91 

3~> 

12 

44 

104 

100 

33 

1 

49 

85 

94 

33 

4 

40 

93 

111 

34 

1 

43 

79 

10J 

34 

5 

28 

66 

85 

35 

22 

67 

89 

35 

2 

14 

48 

69 

36 

15 

33 

72 

36 

2 

6 

23 

42 

37 

9 

25 

51 

38 

7 

14 

42 

39 

1 

6 

29 

Total    .... 

907 

I,i54 

1,188 

!  1,220 

989 

919 

Total    .... 

480 

1,790 

1,692 

1,631 

1,514 

1,326 

Median    .  . 
Woody's 
Standard 
Median.. 

6.8 
4.7 

15.2 
11.1 

19.2 
18.3 

27.3 
26.1 

30.9 
30.6 

33.2 
32.9 

Median    .  . 
VVoody's 
Standard 
Median.. 

7.6 
5.8 

13.5 
9.9 

19.6 
16.5 

25.1 
23.8 

28.4 
27.4 

30.0 
30.1 

Variation  Within  Grades.     Are  All  Children  of  a  Grade  Equally 

Equipped? 

Were  one  to  judge  the  ability  of  Wisconsin  children  in  the 
fundamental  operations  by  the  best  performers  in  each  grade 
he  would  be  forced  to  conclude  that  their  work  is  excellent.  On 
the  other  hand  were  he  to  judge  by  the  work  of  those  who  made 
the  poorest  records  he  would  class  the  work  as  very  poor.  The 


56 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


difference  between  the  best  and  poorest  in  each  grade  for  each 
of  the  four  tests  is  very  marked.  Apparently  some  children  are 
much  too  good  for  the  grade  and  others,  either  as  a  result  of  poor 
teaching,  poor  grading,  poor  attendance,  or  otherwise,  are  far 
below  average  children  for  their  grade.  The  best  pupils  often 
solved  several  times  as  many  examples  as  the  poorest.  In  no 
case  did  they  fail  to  solve  more  than  twice  as  many  on  any  test. 
When  we  consider  only  the  middle  50  per  cent  of  the  group,  the 
range  is  still  large  as  may  be  seen  from  Table  26. 

TABLE  26.—  Range  of  Scores  Made  by  Middle  50%  of  Pupils  in  Each  Grade 


Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Addition  

12.2 

17  7- 

20  4 

24  5 

28  7 

30  2- 

IS.  7 

22.4 

25.9 

31.9 

34.6 

3o.5 

Subtraction  
Multiplication. 

10.7- 
16.0 

4  0 

15.0- 
20.5 

11  7 

18.7- 
22.9 

16  ^ 

22.4- 

28.7 

23  1- 

25.6- 
31.4 

28  0 

27.5- 

32.8 

30  3- 

Division  

10.2 

4.7 

18.1 

10  7- 

21.6 
15  4 

30.8 
21  3- 

33.7 

24  9 

35.6 
27  0 

10.2 

17.1 

23.3 

28.7 

31.6 

32.8 

When  we  consider  that  one-fourth  of  the  pupils  in  each  grade 
made  scores  still  lower  than  the  lower  figures  of  Table  26,  and 
that  another  fourth  made  scores  above  the  higher  figures  in  each 
case,  the  variation  among  children  of  the  same  grade  in  ability 
to  perform  the  fundamental  operations  appears  very  striking. 
Yet  the  children  in  any  given  grade  were  classed  by  their  teach- 
ers as  belonging  in  that  grade.  Apparently  the  best  judgment 
was  not  used  in  grading  many  of  these  children.  Some  of  them 
are  capable  of  doing  more  difficult  work  while  others  are  at- 
tempting work  that  is  now  beyond  them.  The  latter  especially 
would  profit  from  a  careful  study  of  individual  needs  by  teach- 
ers. In  such  a  study  teachers  should  encourage  pupils  to  find 
the  peculiar  processes  which  each  has  failed  to  master. 

That  many  children-  in  each  grade  are  no  better  equipped  in 
ability  to  perform  the  fundamental  operations  than  others  in 
grades  below,  or  that  some  in  each  grade  are  far  in  advance  of 
others  in  grades  above  may  be  seen  more  clearly  from  the  sec- 
tion on  "Overlapping"  following — "Overlapping"  being  the 
technical  term  for  this  condition. 


Arithmetic 


57 


The  Overlapping  of  Performances  from  Grade  to  Grade 

"Overlapping"  is  serious  only  when  it  is  marked.  Poor  grad- 
ing of  children  on  the  basis  of  their  ability  to  do  the  work  of 
the  grade  is  perhaps  its  most  direct  cause.  This  failure  to  grade 
according  to  abilities,  or  needs,  is  due  to  the  failure  of  teachers 
to  recognize  differences  among  children  and  to  certain  adminis- 
trative difficulties,  in  part  real  and  in  part  fancied. 

By  reference  to  the  Tables  24,  and  25,  showing  the  distribution 
of  the  scores  made  on  each  test  it  will  be  seen  that  there  was  a 
decided  overlapping  of  scores  for  each  test.  Some  third  grade 
pupils  did  much  better  than  the  poorest  eighth  graders.  The 
presence  of  overlapping  may  be  seen  more  clearly  from  Table 
27,  showing  the  scores  attained  by  various  proportions  of  each 
grade. 

TABLE  27.  —  The  Scores  Attained  by  Various  Proportions  of  the    Pupils    in 

Each  Oracle 


111 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Addition 

Lower  10  percentile*  
Lower  25  percentile  
Median 

9.5 
12.2 
15  5 

15.4 
17.7 

20  2 

18. 
20.4 
22  7 

21.8 
24.5 
28  4 

25.1 
28.7 
31  8 

26.6 
SO.? 
33  1 

Upper  25  percentile 

18  7 

22.4 

25.9 

31.9 

34  6 

55  5 

Upper  10  percentile  

20.9 

24.4 

29.3 

34.5 

86  3 

36.9 

Woody's  Standard 

14  5 

18  3 

23.1 

29.8 

32.4 

34. 

Subtraction 

Lower  10  percentile  

7.4 

11.4 

16.3 

19.  8 

22.8 

24.2 

Lower  25  percentile  
Median 

10.7 
13  3 

15. 

18  1 

18.7 
20  8 

22.4 
25.6 

25.6 
28.4 

27  5 
30  3 

Upper  25  percentile... 

16. 

20.5 

22.9 

28.7 

31.4 

32.8 

Upper  10  percentile  

18.3 

22. 

24.9 

30.9 

33  4 

34,5 

Woody's  Standard.  .. 

11  2 

15.7 

20.4 

25. 

28.5  ' 

81.7 

multiplication 

Lower  10  percentile 

1  9 

8  4 

14. 

19.4 

24.9 

27.5 

Lower  25  percentile  
Median 

4. 
ft  8 

11.7 
15.2 

lfi.8 
19.2 

23  1 
27.3 

28, 
30.9 

30.3 
33.2 

Upp»r  25  percent  lie...'  

10.2 

18.1 

21.8 

30.8 

33.7 

35.6 

Upper  10  percentile  
WooJy's  Standard  

13.9 
4.7 

20.5 
11  1 

24.3 
18.3 

33.5 
26.1 

35.7 
30,6 

37.6 
32  9 

Division 

Lower  10  percentile  
Lower  25  percentile 

2.2 
4  7 

8.1 

10  7 

12.2 
15  4 

17.3 
21  3 

21.5 
24.9 

23.3 
27. 

Median  

7  6 

13  5 

19.6 

25.1 

28.4 

30. 

Tipper  25  percentile 

10  2 

17  1 

23.3 

28.7 

31.6 

32.8 

Tipper  10  percentile  
Woody's  Standard 

12.3 
5.8 

20.8 
9  9 

26.6 
16  5 

31  5 
23  8 

33.8 
27.4 

34.7 
30.1 

*Th<*  term  "lower  10  percentile"  re.'ers  to  the  score  which  just  10  °o  of  the  group 
failed  to  reach  and  which  90%  exceeded.  The  "upper  10  percentile''  refers  to  the 
score  which  W%  exceeded  and  which  90  'i>  failed  to  reach. 

In  the  sixth  grade  the  upper  10%  not  only  surpassed  the 
median  of  eighth  grade  children  on  each  of  the  four  tests  bu1 


58  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

they  exceeded  Woody 's  standard  for  the  eighth  grade  on  all  ex- 
cept subtraction.  We  are  inclined  to  ask  whether  all  children 
in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  should  not  be  expected  to  do 
as  well  as  the  best  10%  of  the  sixth.  If  the  performances  of 
these  sixth  grade  children  represent  what  can  be  accomplished 
with  good  teaching  in  the  sixth  grade  then  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  appear  to  have  done  little  more  than  mark  time. 
Undoubtedly,  much  of  the  teaching  effort  during  the  years  that 
have  preceded  has  been  squandered.  With  improved  teaching 
methods  and  better  adaptation  of  the  subject  matter  to  individ- 
ual needs,  at  least  90%  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  ought 
to  do  as  well  as  the  best  tenth  of  the  sixth  grade.  In  fact  there 
should  be  little  need  for  teaching  the  fundamentals  of  arithmetic 
in  these  grades,  for  if  10%  of  the  sixth  grade  were  able  to  reach 
their  present  standing,  a  much  larger  portion  of  that  grade 
should  be  able  to  do  so  with  good  teaching.  Certainly  there 
should  be  no  excuse  for  such  a  poor  showing  as  was  made  by  the 
lower  tenth  of  the  eighth  grade.  Only  in  multiplication  did 
they  do  as  well  as  the  best  tenth  of  the  fifth  grade,  and  only  in 
multiplication  did  they  score  above  either  the  sixth  grade  me- 
dian, or  above  Woody 's  sixth  grade  standard. 

The  amount  of  overlapping  in  upper  grades  is  on  the  whole 
greater  than  in  lower  grades.  This  is  accounted  for  in  part  by 
the  fact  that  less  emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  teaching  of  the 
fundamental  operations  in  the  upper  grades  and  in  part  by  the 
fact  that  the  examples  on  the  tests  were  arranged  in  the  form  of 
a  graded  series.  The  graded  series  comes  about  through  the  ar- 
rangement of  the"  examples  in  order  of  increasing  difficulty. 
The  proportionate  increase  in  difficulty  from  one  example  to  the 
next  for  the  simpler  examples  in  the  forepart  of  the  tests  is 
greater  than  in  the  later  and  more  difficult  parts.1 

An  examination  of  the  figures  of  Table  27,  reveals  the  fact 
that  with  only  two  exceptions  the  upper  25%  of  each  grade  ex- 
ceeded the  performances  of  the  lower  25%  of  the  next  higher 
grade  on  each  of  the  four  tests.  The  two  exceptions  occur  in  the 
third  and  fifth  grades  on  the  test  in  multiplication.  With  few 
exceptions  the  best  10%  of  each  grade  did  better  than  the  me- 


1  See  Woody's  Monograph:     "Measurements   of  Some   Achievements  in. 
Arithmetic,"  p.  17. 


Arithmetic  59 

dian  of  the  next  higher  grade  and  better  than  the  poorest  tenth 
two  grades  above.  The  only  exceptions  to  the  former  were 
in  the  third  grade  in  multiplication  and  division,  and  the  fifth 
grade  in  subtraction  and  multiplication.  The  exceptions  to  the 
latter  were  in  multiplication  for  the  third  and  fifth  grades. 
Seemingly  the  best  25%  of  the  children  in  each  grade  would 
be  better  equipped  to, do  the  arithmetic  work  of  the  next  higher 
grade  than  25%  of  the  children  now  in  these  higher  grades.  It 
is  highly  probable  that  the  upper  10%  of  each  grade  are  better 
prepared  than  a  large  proportion  of  the  next  higher. 

Now  it  should  be  observed  that  we  do  not  know  whether  the 
same  individuals  who  are  among  the  highest  in  one  of  the  four 
fundamentals  are  also  among  the  highest  in  the  others.  This  is 
a  matter  which  principals  and  teachers  should  investigate.  The 
tests  give  indication  that  some  of  the  pupils  in  each  grade  possess 
superior  arithmetical  ability.  If  it  is  found  that  certain  pupils 
are  superior  in  all  of  the  fundamentals  it  would  be  well  to  find 
out  what  they  can  do  on  a  test  in  reasoning  problems.  If  they 
prove  superior  also  in  this  phase  of  arithmetic,  the  probabilities 
are  high  that  they  are  ready  for  promotion  in  arithmetic  at  least. 
Failure  to  maintain  a  high  relative  standing  in  reasoning  abil- 
ity may  indicate  that  for  some  pupils  less  time  should  be  devoted 
to  drill  in  the  fundamentals  and  more  to  drill  in  reasoning.  In 
the  case  of  pupils  who  are  strong  in  one  or  more  of  the  funda- 
mental operations  and  not  in  the  others  specialized  or  individual 
drill  may  be  highly  profitable.  Drill  upon  the  particular  oper- 
ations in  which  they  reveal  a  weakness  should  be  given. 

The  Median  Scores — How  Well  Do  Wisconsin  Children  Perform 
in  the  Fundamental  Operations? 

Table  28  is  arranged  to  show  median  scores  for  all  Wisconsin 
children  tested  and  Woody 's  standard.  The  medians  when 
omitting  the  records  of  cities  having  only  annual  promotions 
tested  late  in  the  year,  are  also  shown.  In  the  latter  one  city 
is  omitted  for  addition,  two  for  subtraction  and  three  each  for 
multiplication  and  division. 


60 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


TABLE  28. — Median  Scores  for  all  Cities  and  When  Omitting  Cities  Having 
Annual  Promotions  Tested  in  April  and  May 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Addition 

Woody  's  Standard  Median 
Median  for  all  cities  a  1  ... 
Median  for  cities  b  

Subtraction 

Woody's  Standard  Median. 
Median  for  all  cities  a  
Median  for  cities  fo  

14.5 
15.5 
15.1 

11.2 
13.3 
13.6 

18.3 
20.2 
20. 

15.7 

18.1 
17.9 

23.1 

22.7 
22.5 

20.4 
20.8 
20  6 

29.8 
28.4 
28.2 

25. 
25.6 
25.3 

32.4 
31.9 
31.8 

28  '.5 

28.4 
27  9 

34. 
33.1 
33. 

31.7 
30.3 
30.1 

Multiplication 

-   Woody's  Standard  Median. 
Median  for  all  cities  a  
Median  for  cities  b  

4.7 
6.8 
6.2 

11.1 
15.2 
14.9 

18.3 
19.2 
19. 

26.1 
27.3 
27.2 

30.6 
30.9 
30.7 

32.9 
33.2 
32.9 

Division 

Woody's  Standard  Median. 
Median  for  all  cities  a  
Median  for  cities  b 

5.8 
7.6 

9.9 
13.5 
12  4 

16.5 
19.6 
18 

23.8 
25.1 
24  2 

27.4 

28.4 
27  7 

30.1 
30. 
29  3 

la  includes  all  cities,  b  omits  cities  having:  only  annual  promotions,  tested  in  April 
and  May 

Wisconsin  children  perform  well  on  the  fundamental  opera- 
tions in  grades  three,  four  and  five.  Their  proficiency  in  the 
three  remaining  grades  is  not  so  evident,  particularly  when  an- 
nual promotion  schools  tested  in  April  and  May  are  omitted. 
The  best  showing  in  the  three  upper  grades  is  made  in  multipli- 
cation and  the  poorest  in  addition. 

VARIATION  BY  CITIES 

Table  29  gives  the  record  in  median  scores  for  each  city  on 
each  test  given  in  that  city.  The  median  scores  for  all  cities 
combined  and  Woody's  standards  are  inserted  for  comparison. 
The  records  for  the  different  cities  are  arranged  approximately 
in  order  of  the  portion  of  the  work  for  the  grade  completed 
at  the  time  of  the  test. 


Arithmetic 


61 


oo  »rt  ift  co  co  oo  1>  co 


•<*•  oo  co  •  <M  -*co 


cocococNioiftrHO 


0500  0      -C»rH 


C«5  00  t^  -^t 


i-H  CO  Oi  <M  O5  CO 


rH  t-  C»  IO  Ift  IO  O 


**t-.coifti>eoO(Noo    •c*'"t'n. 


OOJ       01-* 


Is 

*» 

1* 


--  mm       PQ 


d  M 


Sta 


rH  CM  W  **  m  CO 


62 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


Multipl 


CO  00  00  CO-*  to  00  «D 


COOC<J-*C>'-lrHi-l 


CO  •*  00  00  05  05  T-I  <35 


t~  iM  IO 


0  0  ig 


t-  IO  1O 

•*  CO  O5 
CN  C-1CXI 


CO  CO  IO 

o  i>  -^5 

<N  CM  (N 


05  t- 

00  -* 


<NCO 


«DOO 
t-10 


CO«O«OJC~t-eO 


LSl-,^ 


11 


Arithmetic 


63 


Table  30  gives  the  number  of  cities  that  equalled  or  exceeded 
Woody 's  standard  and  the  number  below  for  each  grade  and 
test. 


TABLE  30.  —  The  Number  of  Cities  Equalling  or  Exceeding  Woody' s 
Standard  and  Number  Below 


III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Addition 

Number  equalling  or  exceeding 
Woody  's  Standard 

7 

11 

7 

3 

3 

2 

Number  below  Woody's  Standard  

Subtraction 

Number  equalling  or  exceeding 
Woody's  Standard  

6 
12 

3 
14 

7 
9 

12 
10 

12 
6 

12 
3 

Number  below  Woody's  Standard  — 

multiplication 

Number  equalling  or  exceeding 
Woody's  Standard 

3 

8 

2 
12 

5 
12 

4 
12 

6 
5 

10 

7- 

Number  below  Woody's  Standard  

Division 

Number  equalling  or  exceeding 
Woody's  Standard 

2 
3 

1 
13 

1 
11 

3 
10 

7 

10 

5 
5 

Number  below  Woody's  standard  

I 

2 

3 

6 

7 

12 

The  results  in  addition 

As  indicated  previously  many  Wisconsin  schools  appear  to  be 
weak  in  addition  in  the  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  Only 
two  cities  make  a  good  showing  in  all  three  of  these  grades.  The 
larger  of  the  two  is  a  school  having  semiannual  promotions 
tested  very  shortly  after  mid-year  promotions.  Addition  ap- 
pears to  be  well  taught  in  this  city.  The  other  of  these  cities 
has  only  annual  promotions.  The  tests  were  given  late  in  the 
year  and  pupils  should  be  expected  to  exceed  the  standard  set. 
In  grades  three,  four  and  five  one-half  or  more  of  the  schools 
represented  exceeded  the  standard  set.  Drill  in  addition  does 
not  appear  to  be  neglected  in  these  grades.  Giving  the  tests  in 
a  city  late  in  the  year  is  not  necessarily  a  guarantee  that  such 
a  school  will  exceed  the  standard  in  addition.  Some  schools 
tested  late  in  the  year  did  little  if  any  better  than  others  tested 
early  in  the  year. 

The  results  in  subtraction 

In  subtraction  again  few  cities  are  below  Woody's  standard 
in  the  third  and  fourth  grades.  Approximately  two-thirds  are 


64  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

above  in  grades  five  and  six.  Half  are  above  in  grade  seven,  and 
only  three  out  of  thirteen  in  grade  eight.  The  grammar  grades 
again  appear  to  be  the  weakest  links  in  the  chain. 

The  results  in  multiplication 

Wisconsin  schools  make  their  best  showing  in  multiplication. 
In  the  fourth  and  fifth  grades  only  one  city  is  below  standard. 
Two  are  below  in  the  third  and  three  in  the  sixth.  In  the  sev- 
enth five  are  above  the  standard  and  seven  below.  In  the  eighth 
these  figures  are  reversed. 

The  results  in  division 

The  lower  grades  in  most  cities  made  a  good  showing  in  divi- 
sion. For  obvious  reasons  few  gave  the  test  in  grade  three.  In 
grade  four  only  two  are  below  standard.  In  grade  five  eleven 
of  the  fourteen  cities  did  better  than  the  expected  standard. 
In  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades  many  more  are  above  than  below, 
but  not  so  in  the  eighth  grade.  Here  only  five  of  the  seventeen 
cities  reached  Woody 's  standard. 

Why  do  Wisconsin  Schools  Apparently  do  Well  in  the  Work  in 

Fundamental  Operations  in  the  Lower  Grades  and  Fail 

in  the  Upper? 

This  is  one  of  the  most  perplexing  problems  raised  by  the 
tests.  Several  factors  may  be  involved.  For  one  thing  the 
teachers  in  the  earlier  grades  clearly  do  not  under  emphasize 
drill.  Then  too  Woody 's  standards  for  these  grades  may  be 
somewhat  low.  The  same  can  scarcely  be  said  of  the  standards 
in  upper  grades.  In  view  of  the  types  and  number  of  examples 
on  each  test,  the  upper  grade  standards  do  not  seem  high.  The 
addition  test  contains  38  examples,  the  subtraction  35,  the  multi- 
plication 39,  and  the  division  36.  This  means  that  an  eighth 
grade  pupil  might  fail  on  four  examples  in  addition  and  still  do 
as  well  as  Woody 's  standard.  He  might  fail  on  three  examples 
in  subtraction,  six  in  multiplication  and  five  in  division  and  yet 
be  regarded  as  better  than  a  median  pupil.  This  is  certainly 
a  liberal  allowance,  particularly  when  we  consider  that  the  tests 
call  for  the  application  of  no  processes  commonly  introduced 
later  than  grade  six.  Only  failures  in  denominate  numbers 


Arithmetic 


65 


may  be  attributed  somewhat  to  the  courses  of  study.  The  Wis- 
consin Manual  for  rural  schools,  followed  in  part  by  some  cities, 
discourages  the  teaching  of  these  processes.  What  then  accounts 
for  the  mediocre  showing  of  the  grammar  grades?  Simply  a 
lack  of  sufficient  facility  in  the  manipulation  of  the  necessary 
processes.  Arithmetic  is  not  wisely  taught  in  these  grades.  Too 
little  attention  is  given  to  the  discovery  of  the  specific  needs  of 
individual  children  upon  which  they  need  to  be  drilled.  This 
may  be  seen  better  from  a  few  typical  illustrations. 

Table  31  from  the  Janesville  Survey  gives  the  average  eighth 
grade  scores  for  each  of  five  buildings  on  each  of  ten  examples 
of  the  division  test,  The  Avriter's  observation  of  results  on  these 
examples  in  other  schools  has  convinced  him  that  Janesville  did 
neither  worse  nor  better  than  the  average. 

TABLE  31.— Ten  Troublesome  Examples  in  Grade  VIII 


Example 

Per  cent  of  pupils  who  solved  each  of  ten  examples 
correctly—  for  the  city  and  by  buildings 

City 

Buildings 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

2  -»-  2  —         

71.9 
67.6 
7T.7 
53.2 
33.8 
51.1 
33.8 
45.3 
28.1 
18. 
139 

64.5 
61.3 
74.2 
35.5 
35.5 
48.4 
38.7 
38.7 
25.8 
35.5 

9 

31 

61.1 
66.7 
77.8 
55.6 
5.6 
27.8 
16.7 
61.1 
33.3 
5.6 
18 

89.7 
65.5 
79.3 
65.5 
34.4 
51.7 
34.5 
41.4 
27.6 
3.5 
29 

71.4 
75. 
82.1 
46.4 
42.9 
64.3 
32.1 
57.1 
32.1 
25. 
28 

69.7 
69.7 
75.8 
72.7 
39.3 
54.5 
39.4 
36.3 
24.2 
15. 
33 

2.1)25.2           

25)9750            

.003)  .0936        

3i  -*-  9  — 

}  -*-  5  — 

5/4    +    3/5  — 

52)3756             

531)37722          

9)69  Ibs  9oz  .*.... 

No.  pupils  taking  test  

Such  extremely  low  scores  are  typical  of  many  schools  and  can 
only  be  explained  on  the  ground  of  insufficient  teaching.  An 
analysis  of  1500  errors  made  by  182  seventh  and  eighth  grade 
pupils  on  the  division  test  showed  that  even  though  the  test  of- 
fered many  more  opportunities  for  errors  in  simple  subtraction, 
multiplication  and  division  such  matters  as  failures  to  invert, 


66  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

incorrect  placing  of  the  decimal,  omisson  of  ciphers  in  the  quo- 
tient, and  failure  to  reduce  answers  to  lowest  terms  were  among 
the  most  frequent  sources  of  error. 

How  can  teachers  improve  the  ability  of  pupils  in  funda- 
mental operations  even  though  they  may  be  doing  as  well  as 
average  children? 

This  is  a  question  to  which  teachers  may  be  inclined  to  give 
little  thought  if  their  pupils  are  doing  average  work.  Fre- 
quently, however,  either  still  better  results  could  be  obtained, 
or  results  that  are  just  as.  good,  could  be  had  in  less 
time.  In  the  latter  event  the  best  pupils  could  have  more  time 
for  other  subjects.  Teachers  should  study  the  needs  of  indi- 
vidual children  much  more  than  they  do.  For  'example  in  one 
city  a  fifth  grade  of  41  children  was  0.8  of  an  example  above 
Woody 's  standard  on  the  test  in  subtraction,  yet  a  study  of  the 
papers  revealed  the  fact  that  one-half  of  the  pupils  had  made 
errors  in  borrowing.  Twenty-three  pupils,  while  able  to  solve 
a  number  of  examples  in  subtraction  of  fractions,  failed  to  re- 
duce answers  to  lowest  terms  or  did  not  reduce  correctly.  The 
statement  of  an  answer  as  22/8— 14  was  common.  One  pupil  in 
this  class  solved  all  of  the  examples  in  subtraction  of  fractions 
and  two  of  the  three  in  subtraction  of  denominate  numbers, 
but  missed  three  in  subtracting  decimals  of  the  equation  form. 
This  child  apparently  could  profit  more  if  permitted  to  take 
sixth  grade  work  in  arithmetic.  Such  class  deficiencies  as  in- 
dicated above,  or  such  unusual  proficiency  as  that  of  this  one 
pupil  too  often  pass  .unnoticed  when  the  class  as  a  whole  is  doing 
as  well  as  average  children.  Often  it  is  not  until  we  examine 
closely  the  work  of  each  individual  that  we  discover  the  particu- 
lar differences  in  the  needs  of  the  pupils  of  the  same  class. 

In  a  sixth  grade  of  33  pupils  tested  in  subtraction,  whose 
median  score  was  more  than  three  examples  above  Woody 's 
standard,  59  errors  or  almost  two  per  pupil  were  in  borrowing. 
These  were  contributed  by  18  pupils.  The  errors  were  of  two 
kinds,  in  one  the  pupil  apparently  disregarded  the  fact  that  he 
had  previously  borrowed,  in  the  other  he  proceeded  as  though 
he  had  not  borrowed  when  he  really  had.  Eleven  pupils  made 
errors  of  the  first  sort  and  eleven  made  errors  of  the  second 
sort,  but  strange  as  it  may  seem,  seven  of  those  making  errors 
of  the  first  kind  made  none  of  the  second,  and  seven  of  those 


Arithmetic  67 

making  the  second  type  of  error  made  none  of  the  first  sort. 
From  this  it  would  seem  that  drill  in  examples  with  borrowing 
is  needed  for  this  class  but  some  of  the  pupils  need  to  have  their 
attention  called  to  particular  kinds  of  borrowing.  One  pupil, 
for  example,  made  eight  errors  through  disregarding  the  fact 
that  he  had  borrowed,  but  none  through  subtracting  as  if  he 
had  borrowed  when  he  had  not,  and  another  pupil  made  five 
errors  of  the  latter  sort  but  none  of  the  former. 

In  this  same  sixth  grade  14  pupils  gave  15%  as  the  answer  to 

27 
the  example  K/     Fifty  errors  were  made  because  of  failure 


to  reduce,  or  incorrect  reduction  of  the  fractional  part  of  the 
answer  to  lowest  terms.  These  errors  were  contributed  by  24 
pupils.  Fifty-nine  errors  by  26  of  this  class  occurred  in  subtrac- 
tion of  decimals  of  the  equation  type,  that  were  due  to  incorrect 
placing  of  the  subtrahend.  In  numerous  instances  minuend 
and  subtrahend  were  interchanged.  The  class  was  clearly  weak 
in  this  type  of  exercise.  Twenty-six  errors  were  made  in  funda- 
mental combinations,  and  an  equal  number  in  placing  of  the 
decimal  point.  Errors  of  the  former  kind  were  limited  to  16 
pupils  and  the  latter  to  17. 

The  analysis  of  the  errors  made  by  these  typical  classes  illus- 
trates a  type  of  study  which  teachers  should  make  frequently, 
but  which  they  rarely  do.  Teachers  would  often  be  amazed  at 
the  peculiar  mental  processes  of  pupils,  if  they  were  to  have 
them  retrace  audibly,  each  step  of  an  incorrect  solution.  Were 
teachers  to  study  the  needs  of  their  pupils  in  such  manner  as  we 
have  described,  it  would  result  in  more  intelligent*  drill  exercises. 
A  class  which  revealed  weaknesses  in  subtraction  or  division 
would  not  be  drilled  blindly  upon  subtraction  or  division,  but 
the  major  emphasis  would  be  placed  upon  the  particular  sub- 
traction or  division  processes  in  which  the  class  proved  to  be 
weak.  Not  only  would  there  be  a  more  careful  selection  of  the 
type  of  exercise  to  be  used  for  class  drill,  but  a  more  intelligent 
direction  of  each  individual  pupil's  energies.  Such  'practice 
would  either  develop  a  greater  degree  of  facility  in  manipulat- 
ing the  fundamental  operations  than  most  children  now  possess, 
or  equal  facility  would  be  acquired  with  a  smaller  time  expendi- 
ture. 


68  '    The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

Children  in  Wisconsin  city  schools  perform  well  in  the  funda- 
mental operations  of  arithmetic  in  grades  three,  four  and  five. 
The  best  showing  for  all  grades  is  made  in  multiplication  and 
the  poorest  in  addition.  Many  schools  are  particularly  weak 
in  addition  in  grades  six,  seven  and  eight.  The  eighth  grade  in 
most  schools  is  not  only  weak  in  addition  but  in  subtraction 
and  division  as  well.  The  high  scores  made  in  the  three  lower 
grades  indicate  that  a  greater  amount  of  attention  is  being  given 
to  arithmetic  in  these  grades  than  is  necessary.  This  becomes 
more  evident  than  ever  when  we  consider  that  this  unusual  pro- 
ficiency is  lost  in  the  upper  grades. 

'  The  tests  indicate  wide  differences  in  the  arithmetical  achieve- 
ment among  pupils  of  the  same  grade.  The  overlapping  of  per- 
formances from  grade  to  grade  is  so  great  as  to  indicate  that 
many  upper  grade  children  are  doing  little  else  than  marking 
time.  These  wide  variations  and  marked  overlapping  are  to 
foe  attributed  mainly  to  differences  in  the  quality  of  the  teach- 
ing, differences  in  native  endowment,  to  improper  grading  arid 
to  unequal  attendance.  Some  pupils  apparently  are  attempt- 
ing work  that  is  beyond  them  and  others  are  being  permitted  to 
proceed  at  a  pace  altogether  too  slow  to  tax  their  capacities. 
Teachers  will  need  to  make  more  careful  and  intensive  studies 
of  individual  needs  in  order  to  discover  how  to  help  each  pupil 
to  improve  and  to  advance  at  a  rate  commensurate  with  his 
abilities  and  needs. 

SOME  SUGGESTED  REFERENCES 
Discussions  on  the  Use  of  Tests  in  Arithmetic 

Anderson,  C.  J.  The  Use  of  the  Woody  Scale  for  Diagnostic  Purposes. 
Elem.  School  Jour.,  June  1918. 

Asbaugh,  E.  J.  The  Arithmetical  Skill  of  Iowa  School  Children. 
Univ.  of  Iowa  Extension  Bulletin,  No.  24. 

Boston,  Dept.  of  Educational  Investigation  and  Measurement,  Arith- 
metic Bulletins  7  and  10. 

Bush,  Maybell  G.  the  Fundamental  Number  Facts.  School  and  So- 
ciety, Sept.  1,  1917. 

Chase,  Sara  E.  Waste  in  Arithmetic.  Teachers  Colleae  Record,  Sept. 
1917. 

Cobb,  Margaret  V.  A  Preliminary  Study  of  the  Inheritance  of  Arith- 
metical Abilities,  Jour,  of  Educational  Psychology,  Jan.  1917. 


Arithmetic  69 

Coimts,    G.    S.     Arithmetic   Tests    and    Studies    in   the    Psychology   of 

Arithmetic.     Univ.   of   Chicago  Supplementary  Educational  Mono- 

yraphs,  Vol.  1,  No.  4. 
Courtis,  S.  A.     The  Reliability  of  Single  Measurements  with  Standard 

Tests.     Elctu.  tick.  Jour.,  Mar.  and  June  1913. 
Gist,  A.   S.     Errors  in  the  Fundamentals  of  Arithmetic.     School  and 

Society,  Aug.  11,  1917. 
Haggerty,  M.  E.     Indiana  University  Studies  in  Arithmetic.     Nos.  27 

and  32. 
i-lolloway,  H.  U.     The   Uddtive  Difficulty  of  the  Elementary  Number 

Coinluni-lhnis.     Univ.  of   Pa.   Doctor's   Dissertation,   State   Gazette 

Pub.  Co.,  Printers,  Trenton,  N.  J. 
Kirby,  T.  J.     Practice  in  the  Case  of  School  Children.     Bur.  of  Pub., 

Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 
Monroe,  W.  S.    A  Report  of  the  Use  of  the  Courtis  Standard  Research 

Tests.     Bur.   of  Educ.   Measurements,    State   Normal    School,   Em- 

poria,  Kan. 
Phelps,  C.  L.     A  .Study  of  Errors  in  Tests  of  Adding  Ability.     Elcm. 

Sch.  Teacher,  Sept.  1913. 
Smith,  J.  H.     Individual  Variations  in  Arithmetic.    Elem.  Sch.  Jour., 

Nov.  1916. 
Stone,  C.  W.     Standardized  Reasoning  tests  in  Arithmetic  and  How  to 

Utilize  Them.     Bur.  of  Pub.,  Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 
Thorndike,  E.  L.     Measurements  of  Ability  to  Solve  Arithmetical  Prob- 

-  lems.     Fed.  Sem.,  Dec.  1914. 

Uhl,  W.  L.     The  Use  of  Standardized  Materials  in  Arithmetic  for  Diag- 
nosing Pupils'  Methods  of  Work.     Elem.  Sch.  Jour.,  Nov.  1917. 
\Voody,  C.     Measurements  of  Some  Achievements  in  Arithmetic.  School 

and  Soci'-tit.  Aug.  19,  1916. 
Woody,  C.    Measurements  of  Some  Achievements  in  Arithmetic.    Bur. 

of  Pub.,  Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 
See   also   various   school   survey   reports:     Butte,   Cleveland,    Denver, 

Grand  Rapids,  Janesville,  Nassau  Co.  N.  Y.,  Salt  Lake,  San  Fran- 
cisco, St.  Louis. 

Standard  Tests  in  Arithmetic 
Fundamental  Operations 


Judd,  C.  11.  ri<-r<'i<ind  Survey  Tests.  Department  of  Education,  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago. 

Courtis,  S.  A.  Courtis  Standard  Research  Tests,  Series  B.  82  Eliot 
Street,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Kallom's  Boston  Tests  in  Addition  of  Fractions.  Bulletin  .No.  7,  De- 
partment of  Educational  Investigation  &  Measurement,  Boston. 

Monroe's  Diagnostic  Tests.  Bureau  of  Educ.Measurements,  State  Nor- 
mal School,  Emporia,  Kan. 

Woody's  Arithmetic  Scales,  Series  A.  Bureau  of  Publications,  Teach- 
ers College,  N.  Y. 

Reasoning 

Buckingham's  Reasoning  Tests.  These  will  be  found  in  the  Survey  of 
the  Gary  &  Prevocational  Schools,  New  York  City  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, or  in  the  Third  Conference  on  Educ.  Measurements,  Univ. 
of  Indiana. 

Starch's  Arithmetical  Scale  A.    Daniel  Starch,  Univ.  of  Wisconsin. 

Stone's  Reasoning  Test   (Original  Series).  )  Bur.  of  Publications, 

"  "      (Equivalent    "    ).(  Teachers   College,  N.    Y. 


10  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


Methods  of  Teaching  Arithmetic 

•Brown  &  Coffman.    How  to  Teach  Arithmetic.    Row,  Peterson  &  Co. 

Charters,  W.  W.  Teaching  the  Common  Branches.  Houghton  Mifflin 
Co. 

Freeman,  F.  N.  The  Psychology  of  the  Common  Branches.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Co. 

Jessup  &  Coffman.  '  The  Supervision  of  Arithmetic.     Macmillan  Co. 

Jessup,  W.  A.  Economy  of  Time  in  Arithmetic.  14th  Yearbook,  Na- 
tional Society  for  Study  of  Education. 

Klapper,  F.     The  Teaching  of  Arithmetic.    D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

Kendall  &  Mirick.  How  to  Teach  the  Fundamental  Subjects.  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co. 

McDougle,  E.  C.  A  Contribution  to  the  Pedagogy  of  Arithmetic.  Fed. 
Sem.,  June  1914. 

Smith,  D.  E.  Arithmetic  in  Rapeer's  book,  Teaching  Elementary 
School  Subjects.  Scribner's. 

Smith,  D.  E.     The  Teaching  of  Arithmetic.    Ginn  &  Co. 

Suzzallo,  H.  The  Teaching  of  Primary  Arithmetic.  Houghton  Mifflin 
Co. 


CHAPTER  III 


WRITING 

Handwriting,  though  one  of  the  original  "three  R's,"  is  per- 
haps more  often  poorly  taught  than  any  other  subject.  It  is  a 
subject  which,  under  haphazard  methods  of  teaching,  yields  per- 
haps less  on  the  time  and  money  invested  in  teacher  service  than 
any  other  subject,  and  one  which  brings  a  large  return  with  good 
teaching.  The  fact  that  writing  is  often  poorly  taught  is  due 
not  alone  to  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  technique  of  teaching 
others  to  write  well  but  to  an  entire  absence  of  standards.  It  is 
exceptional  to  find  a  teacher  who  has  any  definite  conception  of 
how  well  children  of  a  given  grade  should  write  with  a  given 
amount  of  training.  With  the  development  of  the  Thorndike, 
Ayres  and  others  handwriting  scales  it  has  become  possible  to 
measure  handwriting  objectively.  It  is  now  possible  to  say  that 
a  given  specimen  of  handwriting  is  as  good  as  quality  12  on  the 
Thorndike  scale  or  quality  60  on  the  Ayres  scale  and  that  it  was 
produced  at  a  rate  of  a  certain  number  of  letters  per  minute. 
Through  the  application  of  these  scales  it  is  possible  to  say  that 
a  given  quality  of  handwriting  represents  average  performance 
for  a  given  grade  or  that  it  is  better  or  worse  than  the  average. 
It  is  also  possible  to  measure  the  amount  of  improvement  over 
a  given  period  of  time,  or  the  variation  within  grades,  as  well 
as  to  compare  achievement  this  year  with  achievement  last  year. 

In  order  that  such  data  as  these  might  be  available  for  Wis- 
consin and  in  order  to  acquaint  a  larger  number  of  teachers  with 
methods  of  testing  handwriting,  instructions  for  giving  a  test 
and  for  scoring  the  papers  were  prepared.  They  were  sent  to 
each  county  superintendent,  to  principals  of  the  County  Train- 
ing Schools  and  to  each  of  the  Normal  schools.  County  super- 
intendents were  asked  to  give  the  test  in -five  rural  schools.  Each 
training  school  was  asked  to  test  an  equal  number.  Each  nor- 


72  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

mal  school  was  asked  to  test  three  state  graded  schools.  In  ad- 
dition the  test  was  given  in  a  number  of  cities  under  the  personal 
direction  of  the  writer. 

The  following  letter  of  directions  was  sent  to  county  super- 
intendents in  January  1917. 


Office  of  State  Superintendent 

To  County  Superintendents: 

We  shall  be  very  glad  to  receive  your  cooperation  and  assistance 
in  establishing  standards  in  handwriting  for  Wisconsin.  The  direc- 
tions for  testing  the  handwriting  are  as  follows: 

1.  Schools  to  be  tested — Select  the  last  five  rural  schools  taking  alpha- 

betically the  surnames  of  the  teachers. 

2.  Date  of  testing — Any  time  previous  to  March  1st. 

3.  Who   shall   conduct   the  test? — Preferably   the   superintendent   or 

the  supervisor,  but  it  may  be  given  by  the  teacher  if  you  arc 
certain  that  she  understands  the  directions  perfectly. 

4.  Directions  to  be  followed  by  the  tester — 

a.  Materials — Provide  each  pupil  with  unruled  paper  of  uniform 

size.     Use  ink  wherever  possible. 

b.  Data  to  be  secured  from  pupils — Have  each  pupil  place  upon 

the  back  of  the  sheet  his  name,  age,  grade,  date,  whether 
boy  or  girl,  county,  school  and  teacher's  name. 

c.  Time  to  be  allowed — Allow  the  children  to  write  for  exactly 

two  minutes.  The  tester  must  have  a  watch  with  second 
hand. 

d.  What  the  children  are  to  write — In  grades  4  to  8  the  series 

of  words  "one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,"  etc.,  as 
far  as  they  can  go  in  the  time  allowed  taking  time  to 
write  well.  In  grades  2  and  3  have  them  write  only  the 
words  "one,  two,  three,  four"  and  repeat  as  often  as  time 
permits  writing  well.  Caution — Be  sure  that  children 
know  how  to  spell  the  words  to  be  written.  Instruct  them 
to  omit  all  commas. 

e.  Returning  papers  to  the  county  superintendent's  office — All 

papers  are  to  be  tied  in  a  package,  labelled  with  county, 
school,  and  teacher's  name  and  forwarded  to  the  county 
superintendent. 

Each  county  superintendent  will  be  sent  a  copy  of  instructions  for 
scoring  the  papers  and  the  necessary  tabulation  sheets. 

Sincerely, 
Supervisor  of  Educational  Measurements. 

Each  county  training  school  was  asked  to  select  the  five  rural 
schools  most  easily  accessible,  and  each  normal  school  to  test  the 
three  state  graded  schools  most  easily  accessible.  The  series  of 
words  indicated  in  the  letter  to  county  superintendents  was  used 
as  a  subject  in  all  except  in  those  tested  by  principals  of  train- 


Writing  73 

ing  schools,  where  for  certain  reasons  the  sentence  "one  boy 
ate  three  apples"  was  substituted.  A  copy  of  directions  for 
scoring  the  papers  may  be  seen  below. 


Directions  for  Scoring  Handwriting 

1.  Scoring  papers  for  quality  of  handwriting. 

a.  Who  shall  score  the  papers? — Each  paper  is  to  be  marked  by 

three  judges,  preferably  the  county  superintendent,  the 
supervisor,  and  one  other  competent  person.  Each  judge 
is  to  work  independently. 

b.  Scale  to  be  used — Thorndike  (This  may  be  secured  from  the 

Bureau  of  Publications,  Teachers  College,  New  York,  5c). 

c.  Judging   the    childrens    handwriting — Compare    each    child's 

writing  with  samples  on  the  scale  without  previous  knowl- 
edge as  to  the  mark  assigned  by  any  other  incite.  Place 
upon  the  back  of  each  paper  the  number  of  the  sample  on 
the  scale  to  which  the  child's  writing  most  nearly  corre- 
sponds in  merit 

d.  Computing  the  final  mark  on  each  paper — Take  as  the  final 

mark  the  middle  score,  e.  g.  if  a  paper  has  marks  of  9,  10, 
11,  its  final  mark  is  10.  If  it  has  marks  of  7,  8,  11,  its 
final  mark  is  8.  If  two  marks  are  alike  that  score  is  the 
final  mark,  e.  g.  if  the  marks  are  9,  9,  11  assign  it  a  final 
mark  of  9. 

2.  Scoring  the  papers  for  speed  of  handwriting. 

Determine  the  total  number  of  letters  written  by  each  child  in 
two  minutes.  You  will  find  it  to  your  advantage  to  prepare 
a  score  card  which  will  indicate  at  a  glance  the  total  letters 
written  if  the  last  word  written  is  "sixteen",  "seventeen", 
etc.,  e.  g.  the  words  from  one  to  fifteen  inclusive  total  74  let- 
ters. Correct  for  letters  omitted  or  added.  Count  dashes  or 
commas  if  present  as  letters. 

3.  Reporting  scores  to  the  office  of  the  state  superintendent. 

Prepare  one  of  the  enclosed  tabulation  sheets  for  each  school 
tested  and  forward  to  the  office  of  the  State  Superintendent. 
The  office  will  be  glad  to  receive  returns  also  from  any 
schools  scored  with  the  Ayres  Scale  (Published  by  the  Divi- 
sion of  Education,  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  New  York)!  If 
time  permits  it  will  be  interesting  and  profitable  to  score  by 
both  scales. 

In  training  and  normal  schools  papers  were. scored  by  stu- 
dents and  faculty  members,  under  the  direction  of  members  of 
the  respective  faculties.  In  some  cities  the  tests  were  scored  by 
teachers  and  in  others  by  students  of  the  teachers  training  course 
after  some  preliminary  practice  in  scoring. 


74  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

THE  RETURNS 

Reports  were  received  from  twenty-four  county  superintend- 
ents, eleven  county  training  schools,  and  three  normal  schools. 
Data  were  collected  by  the  writer  in  eleven  cities.  The  returns 
from  county  superintendents  and  training  school  principals 
represent  173  rural  schools  and  30  different  counties.  Two 
county  superintendents  made  returns  for  more  than  five  schools 
and  three  for  less.  In  some  cases  the  instructions  to  select  the 
last  five  schools,  taking  alphabetically  the  surnames  of  the  teach- 
ers, were  not  carried  out  because  of  difficulties  entailed  in  reach- 
ing these  schools.  This  has  prevented  in  part  what  was  intended 
to  be  a  random  selection  but  it  is  probable  that  it  has  not  ma- 
terially effected  the  results. 

The  results  reported  by  county  superintendents  for  speed  of 
handwriting  in  a  few  cases  were  so  high  as  to  arouse  suspicion 
as  to  the  accuracy  with  which  the  time  was  kept.  Accordingly 
a  follow-up  letter  was  addressed  to  each  county  superintendent 
reporting,  asking  in  detail  as  to  the  conditions  observed.  In 
every  case  where  the  test  was  not  given  by  either  the  county 
superintendent,  or  by  the  supervising  teacher,  and  wherever  it 
could  not  be  stated  that  the  two  minute  time  limit  had  been  ex- 
plicitly observed,  the  results  were  rejected  for  speed.  As  a  re- 
sult of  these  eliminations  the  returns  for  only  141  rural  schools 
representing  28  counties  were  used  in  computing  the  speed  of 
handwriting  for  rural  schools.  Speed  was  recorded  in  only  five 
of  the  eleven  cities  tested. 


THE  RESULTS — WHAT  QUALITY  OF  WRITING  DO  WISCONSIN  CHIL- 
DREN PRODUCE? 

The  distribution  of  scores.  Table  32  gives  the  distribution  of 
all  pupils'  scores  in  terms  of  the  Thorndike  scale  for  quality  of 
handwriting.  The  median  scores  and  Freeman's  standard  are 
also  shown. 


Writing 


75 


TABLE  32. — Distribution  of  Scores  for  Quality  of  Handwriting— Thorndike 

Scale 


Quality 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

4 

18 

7 

5 

46 

27 

7 

1 

2 

1 

6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 

76 
194 
197 
121 
29 
26 
2 
1 

64 
233 
350 
300 
60 
67 
24 
12 
3 

39 
168 
334 
371 
126 
129 
45 
15 
1 

12 

99 
238 
362 
134 
125 
62 
30 
8 

10  . 
43 
174 
364 
137 
196 
83 
60 
14 

6 
19 
100 
260 
138 
226 
114 
69 
23 

5 
15 
90 
224 
121 
223 
140 
82 
29 

15 

2 

5 

7 

16 

17 

16 

1 

8 

7 

24 

17 

1 

2 

6 

18 

1 

3 

Total  .... 

710 

1,147 

1,237 

1,077 

1,099 

982 

979 

Median  
'Freeman's 
Standard  . 

7.6 

8.2 

8.2 
8.8 

8.7 
9.6 

9.0 
10.1 

9.4 
11.0 

10.3 
11.7 

10.7 
12.1 

1  Converted  from  Ayres  to  Thorndike  units  by  Kelly's  method  of  equat- 
ing- -the  two  scales.  "Each  Thorndike  unit  equals  7.9  as  great  a  dis- 
tance as  an  Ayres  unit." 

The  scores  range  from  those  rated  as  of  quality  4  scarcely  legi- 
ble as  handwriting,  to  those  rated  as  of  a  quality  18.  Only  25 
however  were  rated  below  quality  5  and  only  thirteen  as  better 
than  16.  Some  appreciation  of  the  merit  possessed  by  specimens 
rated  at  each  of  steps  4  to  16  of  the  Thorndike  scale  may  be 
gained  by  reference  to  Figure  IV. 

The  specimens  are  arranged  in  order  of  merit  as  judged  by 
the  scores.  With  the  exception  of  the  two  specimens  rated  as 
14  and  16,  which  are  taken  from  the  Thorndike  scale,  the  speci- 
mens represent  writing  produced  by  children  for  the  Janesville 
survey. 

In  grade  two  the  quality  of  handwriting  produced  by  Wis- 
consin children  ranges  from  4  to  13,  and  in  grade  eight  from  6 
to  18.  While  progress  is  evident  from  grade  to  grade  there  is 
a  marked  overlapping  of  achievements  in  writing.  Considerable 


76 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


x^^l^^^^^X^ 

V 


Fig.   IV.     Specimens  of  Each  Quality   of  Handwriting.1 


1  Reproduced  from   "An  Educational   Survey   of  .Tanesville,   Wisconsin.' 


Writing 


77 


numbers  of  children  in  grades  two  and  three  excel  many  children 
iii  every  grade  above,  including  the  eighth.  The  best  writers  in 
the  second  and  third  grades  exceed  the  poorer  half  of  the  eighth 
grade.  The  poorest  writers  in  the  eighth  grade  do  not  write  as 
well  as  average  second  graders.  Some  children  are  naturally 
good  writers  early  in  life.  Others  will  make  good  writers  only 
with  unusually  careful  teaching.  Children  in  the  second  grade 
whose  writing  already  possseses  the  merit  of  quality  11  on  the 
Thorndike  scale  will  need  to  devote  but  little  attention  to  im- 
proving-4heir  writing  during  the  elementary  school  period.  For 
these  children  it  will  be  more  profitable  to  spend  much  of  the 
time  ordinarily  devoted  to  writing  practice  to  other  subjects. 

TABLE  33. —  The  Median  Scores,  the  Lower  and  Upper  25  Percentiles  and  the 
Range  of  the  Middle  50%  in  Quality  of  Handwriting 


II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Lower  25  percentile  

6.7 

7.3 

7.8 

8.2 

8.6 

9.0 

9.1 

Median 

7  6 

8  2 

8  7 

9  0 

9  4 

10  3 

10  7 

8.5 

9.1 

9.6 

10.2 

11.0 

11.4 

11.9 

Range  of  middle  50%  

1.8 

1.8 

1.8 

2.0 

2.4 

2.4 

2.8 

While  the  median  indicates  the  score  that  just  half  of  the 
pupils  WCMV  able  to  attain,  it  is  desirable  to  know  how  well  other 
portions  of  the  children  did  and  how  widely  these  portions  dif- 
fer. Table  33,  computed  from  Table  32,  gives  the  median  score, 
the  lower  and  upper  25  percentiles  and  the  range  of  the  middle 
50%.  These  figures  are  represented  graphically  in  Figure  V. 
The  writing  of  the  poorest  fourth  of  the  pupils  did  not  exceed 
the  figures  representing  the  lower  25  percentile.  That  of  the 
best  fourth  was  better  than  the  figures  indicated  by  the  upper 
25  percentile.  Subtracting  the  figures  representing  the  upper 
and  lower  25  percentiles  we  have  the  range  of  the  middle  half  of 
the  pupils.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  is  never  much  less  than  two 
steps.  In  the  eighth  grade  it  becomes  almost  three  steps.  That 
the  writing  attainments  of  half  of  the  children  should  vary  so 
much  is  surprising,  but  it  becomes  much  more  so  when  we  con- 
sider that  one-fourth  of  them  were  unable  to  write  as  well  as  the 
lower  figure  in  Table  33  and  another  fourth  wrote  better  than 


78 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


the  higher  figure.  The  poorer  writers  have  accomplished  little  for 
the  time  spent  in  writing.  Every  teacher  should  attempt  to  dis- 
cover the  reason  for  this.  She  should  help  each  child  to  discover 
his  particular  shortcomings  and  how  they  might  be  remedied. 


VII 


Upper  35 

Median 


P«rcentile 


Lower  25  Pcrcentile 


Fig.V.  The  Median  Scores  and  the  Lower  and  Upper  35  Percentiles 
in  Quality  of  Handwriting 


The  median  performances 

The  median1  or  middle  performance  for  each  grade  for  7,231 
Wisconsin  children  in  rural,  graded  and  city  schools,  and  for 
children  in  each  separate  class  of  schools  may  be  seen  in  Table  34. 
For  purposes  of  comparison  the  median  scores  for  28,000  Iowa 
children  and  for  children  in  the  better  half  of  56  cities  tested 
by  Dr.  Freeman  are  also  given.2 


1  The  median  score  means  that  just  half  of  the  children  in  any  given 
grade  wrote  better  than  this  and  half  did  not  write  as  well. 

2  The  Iowa   and   Freeman    scores   have   been    converted    from    terms    of 
the  Ayres  scale  to  the  Thorndike  scale  by  Kelly's  method. 


Writing 


79 


TABLE  34.  —  The  Median  Scores  in  Quality  of  Handwriting  for  Each  Class 
of  Schools —  Thorndike  Scale 


Number 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

children 

tested 

11  Cities  

7.5 

8.0 

8.6 

9.0 

9.3 

10.5 

10  7 

3  866 

9  (i  raded  schools  

7.5 

7.8 

8.2 

9.0 

9.5 

9.3 

10.0 

720 

30  Counties    (173  Rural 

A 

schools)  

7.7 

8.5 

8.6 

9.1 

9.5 

10.3 

10.7 

2,645 

Wisconsin  median  

7.6 

8.2 

8.7 

9.0 

9.4 

10..) 

10.7 

7,231 

*iovv  a  standard  

8.3 

8.8 

9.4 

10.0 

10.4 

11.0 

11  5 

28  000 

*Freeman's  standard  — 

8.2 

8.8 

9.6 

10.1 

11.0 

11.7 

12.1 

56  cities 

*  Converted  from  Ayres  to  Thorndike  units  by  Kelly's  method  of 
equating  the  two  scales.  "Each  Thorndike  unit  equals  7.9  as  great  a  dis- 
tance as  an  Ayres'  unit." 

The  writing  of  Wisconsin  children  on  the  whole  shows  distinct 
progress  from  grade  to  grade.  This  is  true  for  each  class  of 
school  though  in  certain  cases  the  improvement  is  slight.  There 
is  little  difference  in  the  median  quality  of  the  handwriting  pro- 
duced in  each  class  of  school.  Variations  of  from  0.1  to  0.3  are 
not  more  than  might  reasonably  be  expected  where  the  scoring 
was  done  by  judges  with  a  limited  amount  of  training.  The 
graded  schools  alone  depart  rather  sharply  in  some  grades  from 
the  median  for  all  schools.  The  returns  from  this  class  of  schools 
are  scarcely  large  enough  in  number  however  to  be  representa- 
tive of  all  state  graded  schools. 

When  compared  with  Iowa  children,  Wisconsin  children  do 
not  make  a  favorable  showing.  Iowa  children  lead  by  a  margin 
varying  from  0.6  of  a  step  to  an  entire  step.  This  margin  of 
superiority  for  Iowa  children,  instead  of  decreasing,  mounts 
higher  as  we  proceed  from  the  lower  to  the  upper  grades.  This 
is  difficult  to  explain  unless  it  be  that  the  time  given  to  the  teach- 
ing of  handwriting  in  Wisconsin  has  not  been  used  to  the  best 
advantage.  Successful  results  in  handwriting  require  not  only 
1hat  time  be  spent  in  writing,  but  that  the  art  of.  writing  be  well 
taught.  Fifty  minutes  per  week  which  represents  the  average 
amount  of  time  given  to  handwriting  in  American  cities1 
should  be  sufficient  time  in  which  to  accomplish  satisfactory  re- 
sults. How  Wisconsin  writing  compares  with  that  of  Iowa  and 
with  Freeman's  standard  may  be  seen  from  Figure  VI. 


iSee  Holmes'   study   in   the  "14th  Year  Book  of  the  National  Society   for 
the   Study  of  Education." 


80 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


How  well  may  Wisconsin  children  be  expected  to  write? 

Good  schools  should  not  tolerate  mediocre  performances  in  any 
subject.  If  the  scores  given  above  represent  how  well  Iowa  and 
Wisconsin  children  can  write  without  any  serious  attempt  to 
bring  about  good  writing,  what  may  we  expect  when  it  is  well 


13 

12 

11 

10 

9 


I III 


IV 


VI 


VII VII 


Freeman's  81 
Iowa  Standa:  d 


andard--56  Cities 


—  38,000 


Children 


Wisconsin 


Fig,  VI, 


The  Quality  of  Handwriting  in  Wisconsin  Compared  with  the 
Freeman  and  Iowa  Standards 


taught"?  The  scores  represented  by  Freeman's  standard  in 
Table  34  give  us  at  least  a  tentative  goal  to  be  attained.  Is  the  re 
any  valid  reason  why  Wisconsin  children  may  not  be  expected 
to  reach  this  standard?  With  a  concerted  attempt  to  improve 
the  quality  of  handwriting  it  should  be  possible  to  do  so  in  the 
near  future.  Quality  12,  Figure  VII,  which  represents  approxi- 
mately median  eighth  grade  performance  by  the  Freeman  stand- 
ard is  not  too  much  to  expect  of  children  who  are  about  to  leave 
the  elementary  school  and  who  will  receive  little  if  any  system- 
atic training  in  handwriting  thereafter. 

Freeman's  standard  was  derived  by  computing  the  median 
scores  made  by  the  better  half  of  fifty-six  cities  tested.     It  rep- 


Writing 


81 


resents  at  least  an  entire  sehool  tested  in  eaeh  of  these  cities. 
The  specimens  for  the  fifty-six  cities  were  scored  by  a  single  in 
dividual  and  are  therefore  to  be  considered  as  possessing  a  sat- 
isfactory degree  of  validity. 


1  J      sLtstJkfctd 


Ci*JiM^UCi,u 


Fig.  VII     Quality   13  on   the  Thorndike  Scale  Representing 
Approximately  Freeman's   Eighth   Grade   Standard 


hy  acliouls.     An   all  schools  equally  successful? 
The  median  scores  by  counties  representing  the  attainments 
in  rural  schools  are  given  in  Table  35. 

TAIM.E  35.  —  Median  »S'cu  /•»;&•  in  Quality  of  Handwritiny  —  By   Counties 


(.'utilities 

11 

m 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

No. 
children 
tested 

1 

8  3 

8  4 

8  3 

9  4 

10  3 

9  3 

Wy 

71 

•» 

1  5 

9  0 

8  4 

10  0 

9  5 

9  5 

10  3 

74. 

;; 

8  0 

8  4 

9  1 

9  2 

9  3 

8C 

7Q 

4 

6  8 

7  9 

7  9 

8  6 

8  6 

9  8 

1?  0 

s  :> 

8  2 

8  9 

9  5 

10  5 

9  8 

56 

i;  

8  3 

9  3 

8  6 

8  6 

9  1 

10  8 

9  7 

109 

7  

6.5 

7  4 

7  1 

7  <; 

9  0 

9  0 

11  0 

121 

.X  

8.8 

9  :: 

9  4 

9  8 

10  8 

11  0 

13  8 

99 

•J  

7  i 

8  5 

8.6 

8  5 

10.0 

9  5 

9  3 

83 

10  
11  

7.6 

8  3 

7.9 
()  •> 

8.0 
11  5 

8.6 

9  7 

9.1 
9  0 

9.1 
9  3 

9.6 
nr, 

214 
65 

r_>  

7  7 

9  0 

<)  4 

9  1 

')  " 

10"! 

11  3 

72 

I;;     

8  3 

11  0 

9  8 

11  ° 

13  7 

14  7 

14  6 

167 

11  

(i   <) 

7  0 

7  4 

9  8 

10  8 

10  7 

10  5 

68 

L5  .  .     .  . 

S  <i 

s  •; 

7  s 

8  6 

8  Q 

10  8 

9  1 

70 

us  

8  3 

7    r, 

8  1 

9  3 

9  0 

10  0 

10  5 

43 

17  

0  8 

7  8 

y  o 

S  3 

8  0 

10  0 

10  8 

66 

18 

S  5 

<}  •> 

11  3 

J9  8 

13  0 

13  8 

I9  3 

85 

19 

S  0 

7  8 

!>  1 

9  3 

9  0 

11  1 

47 

•M 

7  8 

7  fJ 

8  9 

8  8 

9  1 

11  0 

9  0 

82 

L'l. 

S  9 

10  1 

9  *> 

10  8 

11  r> 

11  9 

11  0 

97 

•'"...    . 

7  3 

9  4 

S  0 

10  5 

11  *> 

9  4 

10  8 

77 

23 

7  15 

>   1 

8  7 

8  3 

9  0 

9  3 

10  5 

151 

•'4 

8  0 

8  5 

8  4 

9  3 

9  0 

9  5 

87 

25 

7  1 

9  5 

lo  7 

j->  3 

13  5 

I9  0 

14  8 

57 

•><; 

6  0 

8  6 

S  8 

9  0 

9  3 

8  9 

10  5 

46 

•'!.. 

8  2 

8  5 

8  4 

9  0 

10  0 

8  5 

10  7 

74 

•••&  

8  1 

8.8 

!)  1 

S  9 

9  0 

10  0 

10  8 

•'[) 

8  0 

8  6 

9  2 

10  5 

9  3 

11  4 

10  8 

82 

30 

>  1 

7  9 

8  3 

10  0 

10  7 

10  8 

10  3 

82 

Median   for    17.  i 
rural    schools... 

7.7 

8.5 

«.e 

9.1 

9.5 

10.3 

10.7 

2,645 

Considerable  variation  is  to  be  noted.  Some  counties  appar- 
ently secure  much  better  results  than  others.  The  validity  of 
the  results  is  effected  somewhat  however  by  the  small  number  of 


82 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


children  tested  and  also  by  the  limited  amount  of  training  pos- 
sessed by  the  scorers.  Table  36  gives  the  median  scores  for  each 
of  eleven  cities  arranged  in  approximate  order  of  the  portion  of 
the.  work  of  the  grade  completed.  The  Iowa  and  Freeman  stand- 
ards are  again  inserted  for  purposes  of  comparison. 

TABLE  36. — Median  Scores  in  Quality  of  Handwriting  for  Eleven  Wisconsin 
Cities—  TJwrndike  Scale 


No. 

Cities 

Date  Tested 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

children 

tested 

1 

9    98    16 

9.4 

q  3 

52 

2 

10      9    16 

7.6 

8.9 

9.2 

9  5 

10  9 

10  8 

414 

3 

10    23    16 

8  6 

9  2 

V  2 

q  4 

1  1.3 

8  8 

405 

4  

12—  5—16 

8.2 

8.6 

7.9 

8.8 

9.2 

9.8 

313 

5 

J2      8—16 

8.8 

9.0 

8.9 

10,3 

10.0 

9  7 

434 

c  

3—29—17 

7.3 

7.8 

8.9 

9,1 

9.5 

10.2 

11.0 

1,061 

7  

5_10—  17 

7.8 

8.4 

9.4 

8.7 

9.4 

11.1 

288 

8  

3-  6-17 

7.8 

8.4 

8.9 

9.3 

10.9 

n.o 

456 

g 

3      8    17 

8.3 

86 

9.2 

9.3 

1O.5 

10.7 

13.1 

138 

10  

4-10-17 

8.0 

7.7 

8.1 

8.7 

9.1 

11.2 

9.4 

223 

11  

4—12—17 

6  0 

8.3 

8.8 

8.0 

8.9 

9.0 

12.0 

82 

Combined  City  Median 

7.5 

8.0 

8.6 

9.3 

10.7 

3,866 

9.0 

10.5 

Butte           June  

8  2 

8.0 

8.8 

8.9 

11.  0 

11  2 

12.1 

Des  Moines  Sept 

7.3 

8.1 

8  4 

8  9 

9  5 

10  0 

P  alt  Lake    June  

9.3 

10.7 

10.9 

11.2 

12.1 

13.1 

Starch's  standard  — 

7.5 

8.2 

8.7 

9.3 

9.8 

10.4 

10.9 

Freeman's   standard1 

8.2 

8.8 

9.6 

10.1 

11.  0 

11.7 

12.1 

Iowa1 

8.3 

8.8 

9.4 

10.0 

10.4 

11.0 

11.5 

Converted  from  A.vres  to  Thorndike  urntsby  Kelly's  method  of  equating-  the  two 
scales.    "Each  Thorndike  unit  equals  7.9  as  great  a  distance  as  an  Ayres  unit." 

The  highest  scores  for  each  grade  are  indicated  in  bold  face 
type.  It  is  evident  that  were  all  schools  to  achieve  the  results  ob- 
tained by  the  city  making  the  highest  score  in  each  grade,  Wis- 
consin schools  would  compare  favorably  with  schools  elsewhere. 
They  would  then  equal  the  median  Iowa  handwriting  in  two 
grades,  exceed  it  in  three,  and  fall  below  in  two.  They  would 
equal  the  Freeman  standard  in  two  grades,  exceed  it  in  one  and 
fall  below  in  four.  Certainly  the  scores  made  by  these  schools 
would  be  none  too  high  to  expect  where  writing  is  well  taught. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  four  of  the  highest  scores  for  the  different 
grades  were  made  in  one  city.  This  is  a  comparatively  small  city 
using  a  certain  popular  method  of  handwriting.  The  specimens 
were  scored  by  members  of  the  teacher  training  class  of  the  high 
school  under  the  personal  supervision  of  the  writer.  They  were 
scored  after  a  period  spent  in  practice  judging  upon  samples  of 


Writing 


83 


known  value.  It  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  very  low  scores 
made  by  children  in  some  cities  in  certain  grades.  A  few  cities 
do  not  make  a  satisfactory  showing  in  any  grade.  The  scores 
point  to  but  one  conclusion — writing  is  not  well  taught.  Re- 
sults are  not  commensurate  with  the  time  given  to  the  subject. 

THE  RESULTS  IN  SPEED — How  RAPIDLY  DO  WISCONSIN  CHILDREN 

WRITE? 

The  median  scores  in  speed 

Table  37  gives  the  median  scores  in  speed  of  handwriting  for 
each  class  of  school  and  for  all  schools  combined.  These  may  be 
compared  with  the  median  achievements  for  Iowa  children  and 
for  the  children  in  the  better  half  of  56  cities  selected  by  Free- 
man. The  median  scores  in  speed  in  all  schools  combined  and 
for  the  Iowa  and  Freeman  standards  are  represented  graphically 
in  Figure  VIII. 

TAISLIO  37.—  Tin'  M«li<tu  Scores  in  Speed  of  Handwriting  for  Each  Clast 

of  Schools 


II 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Number 
children 
tested 

5  cities 

29  9 

43. 

54.6 

62. 

61  9 

75  8 

78  9 

1,985 

9  graded  schools  
28  counties  (141  rural 

Si'l)(X)ls)  

Wisconsin  Median  — 
Iowa  Standard  
Freeman's  standard. 

36.7 

36.9 
34.2 
3b.2 
36. 

48.1 

56.1 
49.6 
49.6 
48. 

61.5 

59.3 
57.2 
61.9 
56. 

71. 

69.4 
66.4 
65.5 
65. 

82.5 

73. 
68.2 
72.6 
72. 

84.3 

78.8 
77.9 
75. 
•80. 

96.3 

88. 
84.7 
76.5 
90. 

720 

2,079 
4,784 
28,000 
56  cities 

Table  37  shows  that  in  the  matter  of  speed  state  graded  schools 
lead  over  rural  and  city  schools.  This  lead  is  quite  marked  in 
grades  six,  seven  and  eight.  Referring  to  Table  34  showing  the 
quality  of  handwriting  it  appears  however  that  speed  has  been 
gained  at  a  sacrifice  of  quality.  It  is  only  in  grades  five  and 
six  that  the  graded  schools  excel  the  record  for  all  Wisconsin 
children  in  speed,  and  yet  maintain  a  quality  as  good  as  they. 
The  high  rate  of  speed  attained  in  graded  schools  is  much  above 
either  the  Iowa  or  Freeman  standards  in  grades  five,  six,  seven, 
and  eight,  but  the  quality  is  much  below  either  of  these  stand- 


84 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


ards  in  each  of  these  grades.     Rapid  writing  is  desirable  but  it 
must  be  accompanied  by  a  satisfactory  quality  of  the  product. 


inn 

I                          I 

1                                    IV                                   \ 

VI 

V 

I                         VI.II 

90 
80 

70 
60 
50 
40 
30 

^^ 

^ 

-^^ 



-^•'         ~ 

S^*"^ 

-^^^ 

«g^L 

32? 

^ 

Freeman'  &  S 

Cities 

20 



Iowa  Standa 
Wisconsin 

rd  -  38,000 

Ihildren 

10 

0 

The  Median  Speed  of  Handwriting  for  Ail  Cchcols  Compared  with 
the  Iowa  and  Freeman 'b  Standards 

In  justice  to  these  schools  it  may  be  said  that  the  scries  of  words 
used  may  have  tended  to  cause  an  undue  effort  to  be  placed  upon 
speed.  The  series  was  not  different  however  from  that  used 
in  cities  and  in  most  rural  schools.  Furthermore  when  the  me- 
dian speed  for  the  two  groups  of  rural  schools,  each  using  a  dif- 
ferent series  of  words,  are  compared  it  is  seen  that  only  in  SOUK; 
grades  did  those  using  the  series,  "one  two  three  four,"  etc. 
write  at  a  higher  rate  of  speed  than  did  those  using  the  series, 
"one  boy  ate  three  apples."  This  may  be  seen  from  Table  38. 

TABLE  38. — The  Median  Scores  in  Speed  in  Rural  Schools  Writing  the  Words, 
"One,  two,  three,  four,"  etc.,  and  in  Those  Writing  "One  boy  ate  three 
apples  " 


„ 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

"One,  two,  three,  four,"  etc  
"One  boy  ate  three  apples  "  

35 
41 

56.5 
55.4 

55.9 
64.2 

71.1 
65. 

73.3 
72.6 

78.8 
78.8 

90.4 
81.8 

Referring  again  to  Table  37  it  will  be  seen  that  city  children, 
as  far  as  the  cities  which  reported  scores  in  speed  arc  representa- 


Writing 


85 


five  of  all  cities,  do  not  write  as  rapidly  as  children  in  rural  and 
graded  schools,  nor  as  rapidly  as  Freeman's  standard.  They 
exceed  the  Iowa  standard  in  grades  seven  and  eight. 

Rural  schools  on  the  whole  make  the  best  showing  of  Wiscon- 
sin schools  in  writing.  Their  quality  is  not  inferior  to  that  of 
other  classes  of  schools  and  their  speed  is  more  nearly  in  accord 
with  desirable  standards  in  most  grades. 

When  the  combined  results  for  all  schools  in  speed  of  hand- 
writing are  compared  with  Iowa  scores  and  with  Freeman's 
standard,  (Figure  VIII),  Wisconsin  children  are  not  as  a  whole 
slower  writers.  They  probably  write  as  rapidly  as  average  chil- 
dren who  Imvo  not  boon  taught  to  write  with  any  particular 
;i1  trillion  bring  givrn  to  their  rate  of  writing.  It  is  in  point  of 
quality  that  Wisconsin  children  fail  to  do  well.  They  should 
l)e  expected  either  to  produce  a  higher  quality  at  their  present 
rate  of  writing  or  to  produce  their  present  quality  at  a  higher 
speed.  It  is  when  both  spood  and  quality  are  considered  to- 
gether that  Wisconsin  children  do  not  appear  to  have  attained 
a  high  grade  of  efficiency  in  handwriting. 

Variation  in  speed  of  writing  within  grades 

Whether  children  of  a  grade  write  about  equally  rapid  may 
be  judged  from  a  distribution  table  for  all  of  the  scores.  The 
distribution  of  scores  in  speed  of  handwriting  for  4,784  children 
representing  141  rural,  0  graded  and  5  city  schools  is  shown  in 
Table  39.  TFow  much  children  of  a  given  grade  vary  in  the  rate 

TAIU.K  39. — Dint  rilutf  ion  of  Scores  For  Speed  of  Handwriting 


Speed 

TI 

TTT 

TV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

0-  9f> 

go 

98 

33 

17 

8 

4 

•M       lit  

i!     :,o  •  . 
m    no 

298 

110 

45 

207 
ISO 

157 

134 
113 
174 

61 
SI 
114 

50 
Q8 

119 

27 
36 
60 

18 
H 
50 

>',]       70 

or, 

00 

157 

107 

130 

105 

74 

71  -  SO     

is 

69 

99 

138 

118 

122 

106 

SI-     00 

30 

53 

88 

89 

123 

108 

01    100 

5 

12 

IS 

66 

54 

80 

122 

101-110                

Q 

13 

26 

33 

48 

66 

Ill   120     .              ..    . 

1 

9 

5 

18 

27 

37 

VM  no 

9 

9 

4 

4 

15 

14 

I'M    110 

1 

1 

8 

3 

7 

6 

111    1  ">0 

2 

4 

1r>1   16O 

1 

1 

2 

7 

101    170  

1 

Total     
M.-.linn     

580 
"4.2 

757 

40.0 

790 
67.  2 

683 

66.4 

692 
68.2 

656 
77.9 

626 
84.7 

86  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

of  writing  may  be  judged  from  the  range  of  the  scores  in  each 
grade.  In  grade  two  the  rate  varies  from  that  of  82  pupils  who 
wrote  less  than  21  letters  per  minute  to  that  of  5  pupils  who  pro- 
duced more  than  90  letters  per  minute.  In  other  grades  the 
range  is  even  greater.  It  is  evident  that  some  children  in  each 
grade  write  with  a  speed  several  times  that  of  others  in  the  same 
grade.  The  marked  overlapping  (i.  e.  children  of  a  lower  grade 
exceeding  the  speed  of  others  in  grades  above)  appears  to  indi- 
cate that  some  children  begin  as  slow  writers  and  continue  to  be 
slow  writers  throughout.  Others  are  rapid  writers  early  in  their 
school  life  and  continue  to  be  rapid  writers.  This  supposition 
if  correct  contains  an  important  implication  for  teachers.  If 
the  habit  of  writing  rapidly  is  to  be  developed,  teachers  must 
consciously  train  pupils  in  that  direction.  Left  to  proceed  with- 
out guidance,  there  is  little  assurance  that  a  pupil  will  develop 
even  a  fair  rate  of  writing.  The  presence  of  pupils  in  grades 
six,  seven,  and  eight,  Table  39,  who  do  not  write  more  than  60 
letters  per  minute  is  to  be  regretted.  Unless  strenuous  efforts 
s,re  made  in  the  near  future  these  children  will  leave  the  elemen- 
tary schools  with  writing  habits  too  slow  for  efficiency  in  the 
business  and  commercial  world,  or  any  other  occupation  requir- 
ing the  use  of  writing. 

THE  RELATION  OF  SPEED  AND  QUALITY 

To  discover  opportunities  for  improvement,  the  variations  in 
both  speed  and  quality  need  to  be  considered.  Do  all  the  chil- 
dren of  a  grade  write  about  equally  well  or  equally  rapid?  Do 
some  schools  produce  good  but  slow  writers  ?  Do  others  produce 
poor  but  rapid  writers?  Are  there  others  in  which  children 
write  both  well  and  rapid  or  both  poor  and  slow?  The  varia- 
tions in  quality  were  noted  in  Table  32.  Those  for  speed  were 
shown  in  Table  39.  Unfortunately  in  most  cases  it  did  not  ap- 
pear feasible  to  request  that  results  be  recorded  in  a  form  that 
would  indicate  the  scores  in  both  quality  and  speed  for  the  same 
pupils.  Some  appreciation  of  the  relation  which  may  be  ex- 
pected can  be  judged  from  the  results  in  one  grade  in  Janesville 
shown  in  Table  40. 


Writing 


87 


TABLE  40. — Distribution  of  Handwriting  Scores  in  Speed  and  Quality 

for  Grade  Seven 


Quality 

Speed 

Total 

0-40 

41- 

50 

51- 

60 

61- 

70 

71- 

80 

81- 
90 

91- 

100 

101- 
110 

111- 
120 

121- 

130 

5... 

1 

1 

6 

7  

1 
1 
6 
1 
5 
1 
3 

1 

3 
6 
5 
10 

2 
9 
44 
23 
44 
10 
8 
1 

8                    ..     . 

1 

1 
3 
1 

1 
8 
10 
8 
3 
3 

1 

i 

9 

12 
2 
9 
3 

5 
1 

2 
2 
3 

2 

10 

11 

2 

2 

12 

2 

13 

1 

1 

14             

1 

Total  

4 

7 

18 

25 

34 

26 

14 

8 

4 

2 

142 
10.2 

Median  

From  Table  40  it  will  be  seen  that  some  pupils  are  both  poor 
and  slow  writers.  There  are  others  who  write  well  and  rapidly. 
Still  others  write  at  a  fair  rate  of  speed,  but  their  quality  is 
poor.  Some  produce  a  fair  quality,  but  have  a  low  rate  of  speed. 
It  is  desirable  that  children  produce  writing  of  good  quality  at 
a  fair  speed.  Evidently  some  children  need  to  improve  in  qual- 
ity, some  in  speed  and  others  in  both. 

The  scores  in  both  speed  and  quality  for  the  five  cities  report- 
ing both  are  shown  in  Table  41.  City  No.  3  on  the  whole  makes 

TABLE  41.—  Me<li<ni  Scores  in,  Both  Speed  and  Quality  for  Five  Cities 
Reporting  Both 


Cities 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

1.    Quality                   

6.0 

8.3 

8.8 

8.0 

8.9 

9.0 

12.0 

Speed  

24.4 

48.0 

61.7 

55.0 

68.3 

66.3 

73.0 

2     Quality 

7.8 

8.4 

9.4 

8.7 

9.4 

11.1 

Speed  

19.0 

44.7 

75.5 

65.8 

80.2 

91.1 

3     Quality 

8  3 

8  6 

9.2 

9  3 

10.5 

10.7 

12.1 

Speed  

33.8 

48.2 

59.6 

68.4 

63.0 

61.6 

4,    Quality  ... 

7  3 

7  8 

8.9 

9  1 

9  5 

10.2 

11.0 

Speed 

26  1 

45  5 

56  3 

56  5 

56  fi 

75  6 

77  5 

5     Quality 

7  8 

8  4 

8  9 

9  3 

10  9 

11.0 

Speed  

44.2 

63.4 

69  9 

70.7 

81.5 

77.0 

the  best  showing  in  quality  and  city  No.  5  makes  the  best  record 
in  speed.  Taking  both  quality  and  speed  together,  these  two 
cities  are  superior  to  the  other  three.  Apparently  those  that 
place  more  emphasis  on  speed  get  better  results  in  quality. 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


Figure  IX  is  intended  to  represent  in  graphic  form  a  combina- 
tion of  the  scores  for  quality  and  speed  for  each  type  of  school. 
The  portion  of  the  bar  to  the  left  represents  the  median  score  in 
quality  and  the  portion  to  the  right  the  median  score  in  speed 
in  each  case.  The  total  length  of  the  bar  may  be  taken  to  repre- 
sent a  combination  of  speed  and  quality. 


II 


IV 


VI 


VIII 


c 

III      0 
B 


C 
VII      G 

B 


C  -  City       G  -  State  Graded       R  -  Rural 

Fig. IX.    Speed  and  Quality  of  Handwriting  in 
Each  Class  of  Schools  by  Grades 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

The  quality  of  writing  in  Wisconsin  schools  is  only  fair.  It 
is  not  as  good  as  that  of  Iowa  children.  Exceptions,  however, 
occur.  Some  schools  are  markedly  superior  to  others.  There 
are  some  good  writers  in  every  school.  The  attainments  of  many 
of  the  children  however  represent  an  insufficient  return  upon 
the  time  invested.  Fifty  minutes  per  week  is  sufficient  time  to 
secure  good  results,  but  many  fail  to  do  so  because  of  poor  teach- 


Writing  89 

ing.  Children  who  exhibit  unusual  skill  in  their  writing  attain- 
ments should  be  permitted  to  devote  much  of  the  time  ordinarily 
given  to  writing  to  other  subjects.  This  may  serve  also  as  an 
•  incentive  to  others  to  improve.  The  handwriting  of  pupils 
whose  product  is  poor  should  be  carefully  studied  to  discover  the 
teaching  needs  of  cadi.  In  studies  of  this  type  the  Freeman 
handwriting  scale  will  be  found  helpful.  When  writing  is  well 
taught  schools  should  be  able  to  reach  the  standards  set  by  Pro- 
j'essor  Freeman. 

Wisconsin  children  arc  not  on  the  whole  slow  in  their  speed 
of  writing.  When  speed  and  quality  are  taken  together,  how- 
ever, they  do  not  compare  favorably  with  Iowa  children  or  with 
the  standard  set  by  Freeman.  Kural  schools  make  the  best 
showing  when  both  Factors  are  considered.  In  state  graded 
schools  speed  seems  to  be  attained  at  the  price  of  quality.  Rapid 
Avriting  is  to  be  desired  but  it  must  be  produced  at  a  fair  quality. 
The  fact  thai  sonic  \\rite  several  times  as  rapidly  as  others,  and 
1he  fact  that  Wisconsin  children  write  as  rapidly  as  average 
children  without  having  given  particular  attention  to  speed, 
suggests  that  a  gain  could  be  made  if  teachers  made  a  conscious 
effort  to  improve  the  speed  of  slow  writers.  Rate  of  writing 
becomes  a  fixed  habit  which  should  be  shaped  early  in  life.  Un- 
der present  conditions  some  children  will  leave  school  with  a 
writing  rate  too  slow  for  efficiency  in  any  line.  Much  as  some 
may  stress  the  use  of  the  typewriter  the  ordinary  man  writes 
Avitli  his  hand.  The  grocery  clerk,  the  saleswoman,  the  office 
worker,  the  banker,  the  reporter,  the  army  clerk,  and  the  teacher 
are  all  required  to  take  notes  which  call  for  legibility  and  speed. 
Both  must  be  stressed  in  the  teaching  of  handwriting.  Some 
children  need  to  improve  the  quality  of  their  writing,  others 
their  speed,  and  some  both. 

f  SOME  SUGGESTED  REFERENCES 

Discussions  on  the  Measurement  of  Handwriting 

Ashbaugh,  E.  J.  Handwriting  of  Iowa  School  Children.  Extension 
Div.  Bui.  No.  15,  Univ.  of  Iowa,  Iowa  City,  Iowa. 

Ayres,  Leonard  P.  A  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Quality  of  Handwriting 
of  School  Children.  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  New  York. 

Ballou,  F.  W.  Boston  Dept.  of  Educational  Investigation  and  Meas- 
urement Bui.  No.  IX,  Penmanship.  Price  7  cents. 

Breed  &  Down.  Measuring  and  Standardizing  Handwriting  in  a  School 
System.  Elem.  Sch.  Jour.,  Mar.  1917. 


90  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

Freeman,  F.  N.  An  Analytical  Scale  for  Judging  Handwriting.  Elem. 
School  Journal.  Apr.  1915. 

Freeman,  F.  N.  Handwriting.  Chap.  V.,  Fourteenth  Year  Book  of  the 
National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education. 

Freeman,  F.  N.  Some  Practical  Studies  of  Handwriting.  Elem. 
School  Teacher,  Dec.  1913. 

Freeman,  F.  N.  Survey  of  the  St.  Louis  Public  Schools,  Vol.  II,  Hand- 
writing. 

Graves,  S.  Monroe.  A  Study  in  Handwriting.  Jour,  of  Educ.  Psy., 
Vol.  VII,  Oct.  1916. 

Gray,  C.  T.  A  Score  Card  for  the  Measurement  of  Handwriting.  Bui. 
37,  Univ.  of  Texas,  Austin,  Texas. 

Gray,  C.  T.  The  Training  of  Judgment  in  the  Use  of  the  Ayres  Scale 
for  Handwriting.  Jour.  Educ.  Psychology,  Feb.  1915. 

Johnson  &  Stone.  Measuring  the  Quality  of  Handwriting.  Elem.  Sch. 
Jour.,  Feb.  1916. 

IJudd,  C.  H.  Measuring  the  Work  of  the  Schools.  Handwriting.  Re- 
port on  tests  in  the  Cleveland  Survey.  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
N.  Y. 

King  &  Newcomb.  Improvement  in  Handwriting.  Educ.  Admin.  & 
Supr.,  Oct.  1916. 

Koos,  L.  V.  The  Determination  of  Ultimate  Standards  of  Quality  in 
Handwriting.  Elem.  School  Jour.,  Feb.  1918. 

Starch,  Daniel.  The  Measurement  of  Efficiency  in  Handwriting. 
Jour.  Educ.  Psychology,  Feb.  1915. 

Starch,  Daniel.  The  Measurement  of  Handwriting.  Jour.  Educ.  Psy- 
chology, Oct.  1913. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Handwriting.  Bureau  of  Pub.,  Teachers  College, 
New  York. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Means  of  Measuring  School  Achievements  in  Hand- 
writing. Educ.  Admin.  &  Supr.,  May  1915. 

See  also  various  school  survey  reports:  Butte,  Cleveland,  Denver, 
Grand  Rapids,  Janesville,  Nassau  Co.,  N.  Y.,  Salt  Lake,  San  Fran- 
cisco, St.  Louis. 

Scales  for  Measuring  Handwriting 

Ayres.  A  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Quality  of  Handwriting  of  School 
Children.  "Three  Slant  Edition."  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  N.  Y. 

Ayres.    A  Measuring   Scale  for  Handwriting.    "Gettysburg   Edition." 

Freeman.  Chart  for  Diagnosing  Faults  in  Handwriting.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Co. 

Thorndike.  A  Scale  for  Handwriting  of  Children.  Bur.  of  Publica- 
tions, Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 

Methods  of  Teaching  Handwriting 

Bliss,  D.  C.  Handwriting  in  Rapeer's  book,  Teaching  Elementary 
School  Subjects.  Scribners. 

Charters,  W.  W.  Teaching  the  Common  Branches.  Handwriting. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Clark,  A.  W.     The  Teaching  of  Handwriting.     Ginn  &  Co. 

Freeman,  F.  N.  The  Psychology  of  the  Common  Branches.  Hand- 
writing. Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Freeman,  F.  N.     The  Teaching  of  Handwriting.    Houghton  .Mifflin  Co. 

Kendall  &  Mirick.  How  to  Teach  the  Fundamental  Subjects.  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co. 

Lister,  C.  C.    Muscular  Movement  in  Handwriting.    Macmillan. 

Helpful  suggestions  will  also  be  found  in  the  published  courses  of 

study  of  various  places. 


CHAPTER  IV 


COMPOSITION 

An  attempt  was  made  to  measure  success  in  English  composi- 
tion in  fifteen  schools.  In  each  case  the  test  was  given  and 
scored  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  writer.  The  subject 
used  was,  "How  I  Should  Like  to  Spend  Next  Saturday."1 
Pupils  were  instructed  to  write  a  composition  not  to  exceed  one 
page  in  length.  Twenty  minutes  were  allowed.  No  preliminary 
discussion  of  the  subject  was  permitted.  The  "Hillegas  Scale 
i'or  Measuring  English  Composition"  and  the  "Trabue  Nassau 
County  Supplement  to  the  Hillegas  Scale"  were  used  in  rating 
the  papers.  The  former  was  employed  in  schools  tested  during 
the  first  half  of  the  year.  In  schools  tested  during  the  second 
semester  both  scales  were  -  employed.  If  scores  were  to  be  re- 
corded in  terms  of  one  of  the  scales,  the  other  was  used  as  a  refer- 
ence to  enable  the  scorer  to  verify  his  judgment  of  a  given  speci- 
men. 

The  Trabue  scale  reproduced  below  consists  principally  of 
specimens  written  upon  a  subject  almost  identical  with  that  used 
in  the  test.  This  made  it  more  serviceable  than  the  original 
Hillegas  Scale  and  removed  the  criticisms  sometimes  offered 
against  the  Hillegas  Scale,  namely,  that  a  number  of  the  speci- 
mens are  not  original  productions  of  children. 

THE  TRABUE  SCALE 

What  I  should  like  to  do  next  Saturday 

Value 

0.  I  went  going  on  to  the  Dox  Saturdaye  dnd  day  we  the  boys 

and  I  well  going  home  and  I  well  going  the  boys,  and  I  will 
going  these  read  in  and  they  to  night,  and  we  or  night.  I 
well  going  a  ground  shalt  and  I  gone  out  I  will  going  to  shea 
shouse  and  I  will  shoe  or  the  skill  of  the  shea  of  night. 

1.1          I   intend   to  mak  a   snou  man   and  make   an   fort   and   fort 
snou  ball  at  chidern  and  hau  I  whist  ma    frant    carolyn    cole 
what  were  me  I  will  going  to  the  mauiss  on  Saturday. 
Georga  will  come  went  me. 


1  In  a  few  cases  Should  was  inadvertently  given  as  Would. 


92  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

at  night  1  will  going  out  went  rny  mother  to  the  marce 

I  will  mak  the  snou  man  and  the  fort  in  the  moning  and  in 

the  afternoon  I  will  go  to  the  mauies. 

I  whist  there  whest  school  on  Saturday 

1 . 9  one  next  S  aturday  I  expect  to  go  to  the  city  leve  next  G  atur- 
day  to  see  my  ofriend  archie  king  I  am  going  to  grow  to  the 
baning  balys  circus  with  hime  next  S  aturday  fefore  I  go  I  have 
to  do  my  jobs  feedsing  the  cows  ard  horse  ard  chinkens  and 
geese  next  Saturday 

My  friend  is  a  very  good  fellow  to  go  and  see  So  my  mother 
S  aid  "If  I  do  my  work  during  Easter  week  vacation  I  can  go 
to  the  barning  baley  circus  with  hime 

2.8  Once  a  pon  a  time  there  was  a  girl.  One  day  she  asked 
me*  what  I  was  going  to  do  next  Saterday  so  1  said,  "I  am  going 
to  go  for  a  swim."  And  she  said,  "thats 

just  were  I  am  going  to."  next  Saterday  came  we  both  went 
down  together.  We  came  home  at  noon  time,  after  dinner  we 
went  to  the  picktures.  There  we  had  a  good  time.  And  then 
came  home  at  night. 

3.8  I   would    like  to   go    out  in  the   after   noon   and   play   catch- 

ing the  ball.  Go  over  to  Bertha's  house  and  have  a  few  girls  to 
come  with  me  and  be  on  each  others  side.  I  have  a  tennis 
ball  too  play  with.  The  game  is  that  one  person  should  stand 
quite  aways  from  another  person  and  throw  the  ball  too  one 
then  another.  Someone  has  to  be  in  the  middle  and  try  too  get 
the  ball  a  way  from  someone  then  she  takes  this  persons  place 
who  she  caught  the  ball  from.  Then  till  every  person  has  a 
chance. 

5.0  Next  Saturday  I  should  like  to  go  away  and  have  a  good 
time  on  a  farm.  I  should  like. to  watch  the  men  plowing  the 
fields  and  planting  corn,  wheat,  and  oats  a~hd  other  things 
planted  on  farms. 

Next  Saturday  I  will  go  the  Pioneer  meeting  if  nothing  hap- 
pens so  that  I  cannot  go.  I  should  like  to  go  swimming  but  it 
is  not  warm  enough  and  I  would  catch  a  bad  cold.  I  should  like 
to  go  to  my  aunts  and  drive  the  horses,  I  do  not  drive  without 
some  older  person  with  me,  so  I  cannot  go  very  often. 

I  should  like  to  see  my  aunts  cat  and  her  kittens,  too.  I  think 
I  can,  to. 

6.0  I  should  like  to  join  my  girl  friends,  who  are  going  to 
the  city  on  the  9:05  A.  M.  train.  They  are  going  shopping  in 
the  morning  and  will  have  lunch  to-gether,  then  they  are  going 
to  the  Hippodrome.  After  the  Hippodrome,  they  are  all  going 
home  to  dinner  to  one  of  the  girls  houses,  she  lives  on  Riverside 
Drive  so  they  expect  to  take  the  "Fifth  Avenue  Bus"  up  there. 
The  evening  will  be  devoted  to  playing  games,  singing  and 
dancing. 

7.2  If  I  had  a  thousand  dollars  to  spend,  I  think  I  would  take 
a  trip  to  San  Francisco  by  train  with  the  rest  of  the  family, 
and  stop  at  a  sea-side  hotel.  It  would  be  glorious  to  see  the 
surf  again,  and  to  escape  from  the  cold  blustering  weather  of 
December  for  the  balmy  breezes  of  the  ocean,  and  the  whiff  of 
orange  blossoms. 

We  could  take  long  drives  under  shady  trees,  visit  the  orange 
and  olive  groves  and  bathe  in  the  surf.  Think  of  bathing  in  the 
ocean  in  December! 

Coming  home  again  I  should  enjoy  stopping  at  Yellow  Stone 
Park.  It  would  be  lots  of  fun  to  camp  out,  and  to  ride  over  the 


Composition  93 

prairies  on  frisky  ponies.  It  would  be  very  interesting  to  notice 
the  change  of  climate  as  we  got  farther  east,  and  to  go  to  bed  on 
the  train  one  evening  feeling  warm,  and  waking  up  the  next 
morning  feeling  very  chilly. 

I  am  afraid  by  the  time  I  would  get  home  a  thousand  dollars 
would  be  pretty  well  used  up;  but  if  not  I  would  like  to  give  a 
party. 

8.0  One    Sunday,    towards    the    end    of    my    summer   vacation,    I 

was  in  bathing  at  the  Parkway  Baths.  In  the  Brighton  Beach 
Motordrome,  a  few  rods  away,  an  aviation  meet  was  going  on. 
Several  times  one  of  the  droning  machines  had  gone  whirring 
by  over  our  heads,  so  that  when  the  buzzing  exhaust  of  a  flier 
was  heard  it  did  not  cause  very  much  comment.  Soon,  however, 
the  white  planes  of  "Tom"  Sopwith's  Wright  machine  were  seen 
glimmering  above  the  grandstand.  Everyone  stood  spellbound 
as  lie  circled  the  track  several  times  and  then  headed  out  to  sea. 
He  was  seen  to  have  a  passenger  with  him.  Suddenly,  the  regu- 
lar hum  of  his  motor  was  broken  by  severe  pops,  and  the  engine 
ran  slower,  missing  fire  badly.  In  response,  to  Sopwith's  move- 
ments, the  big  flier  tilted  and  swooped  down  to  the  beach  from 
aloft  like  an  eagle.  The  terrified  crciwd  made  a  rush  to  get  out 
of  the  way  as  the  airship  came  on,  but  Sopwith  could  not  land 
on  the  beach,  but  skimmed  along  close  to  the  water  instead. 
Suddenly  his  wing  caught  the  water,  and  the  big  machine  somer- 
saulted and  sank  beneath  the  waves.  The  aviators  soon  came 
bobbing  up  and  were  taken  away  in  a  launch,  but  the  accident 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  those  who  saw  it. 

9.0  The  courage  of  the  panting  fugitive  was  not  gone;  she  was 
game  to  the  tip  of  her  high-bred  ears;  but  the  fearful  pace  at 
win' cli  she  had  just  been  going  told  on  her.  Her  legs  trembled, 
and  her  heart  beat  like  a  triphammer.  She  slowed  her  speed  per- 
force, but  still  fled  industriously  up  the  right  bank  of  the 
si  roam.  When  she  had  gone  a  couple  of  miles  and  the  dogs 
were  evidently  gaining  again,  she  crossed  the  broad,  deep  brook, 
climbed  the  steep  left  bank,  and  fled  on  in  the  direction  of  the 
Mt.  Marcy  trail.  The  fording  of  the  river  threw  the  hounds 
off  for  a  time;  she  knew  by  their  uncertain  yelping,  up  and 
down  the  opposite  bank,  that  she  had  a  little  respite;  she  used  it, 
however,  to  push  on  until  the  baying  was  faint  in  her  ears,  and 
then  she  dropped  exhausted  upon  the  ground. 

The  first  sample  on  the  scale  is  very  poor  in  quality.  Each 
successive  sample  represents  increased  merit.  The  merit  in- 
creases by  approximately  equal  increments  as  may  be  judged 
from  the  values  attached  to  the  successive  samples,  0,  1.1,  1.9, 
2.8,  3.8,  5,  6,  7.2,  8,  0.  The  value  attached  to  each  sample  is  the 
result  of  a  large  number  of  judgments  based  upon  the  theory 
lhat  differences  equally  often  noticed  are  equal.  Thus  if  one- 
hnlf  of  the  judges  estimate  a  given  specimen  A  as  possessing 
moiv  merit  than  another  specimen  B  and  one-half  estimate  B  as 
superior  to  A,  the  best  we  can  say  is  that  the  two  possess  equal 
merit,  Were  all  of  the  judges  to  rate  B  as  superior  to  A  we 
would  know  that  P>  is  better  than  A,  but  not  how  much  better. 


94  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

But  if  only  75%  of  the  judges  consider  B  as  better  than  A,  then 
B  is  superior  to  A  by  some  definite  amount.  If  in  addition  75% 
of  the  judges  regard  a  third  specimen  C  as  better  than  B,  and  an 
equal  per  cent  regard  a  fourth  specimen  D  as  better  than  C,  and 
so  on,  we  have  the  essentials  of  a  scale.  Each  successive  sample 
then  represents  a  uniform  increase  in  merit,  and  this  uniform  in- 
crease (i.  e.  an  increase  which  75%  of  judges  recognize)  becomes 
the  unit  to  be  employed  in  constructing  the  scale.  It  was  through 
a  process  such1  as  this  that  the  samples  on  the  scales  were  selected 
from  a  large  number  of  specimens.  Specimens  which  did  not 
conform  to  the  "75%"  distribution  of  judgments,  were  re- 
jected. As  a  matter  of  fact  the  scale  makers  did  not  find  an 
entire  set  of  specimens  that  conformed  to  this  requirement,  but 
they  selected  those  which  most  nearly  did  so.  It  is  for  that  rea- 
son that  instead  of  having  a  scale  with  values  0,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc. 
we  have  0,  1.1,  1.8,  2.8,  3.8,  5,  etc. 

To  use  the  scale  we  place  the  pupil 's  specimen  beside  the  scale 
and  find  the  particular  scale  sample  to  which  the  child 's  produc- 
tion most  nearly  corresponds  in  general  merit.  It  is  best  to  find 
first  a  sample  on  the  scale  which  is  not  as  good  as  the  pupil's 
specimen.  Then  a  second  scale  sample  should  be  found  which  is 
clearly  superior  to  the  child's  production  to  be  rated.  This 
establishes  the  limits  within  which  the  correct  value  of  the  speci- 
men we  are  rating  lies,  and  facilitates  the  work  of  scoring.  This 
method  was  used  in  each  school  tested.  Where  doubt  arose  as 
to  whether  a  given  specimen  deserved  the  mark  of  a  particular 
scale  sample,  e.  g.  5,  the  scorers  were  instructed  to  compare  it 
with  the  scale  sample  just  above,  i.  e.  6,  and  the  sample  just  be- 
low i.  e.  3.8.  If  the  pupil's  specimen, appeared  to  be  better  than 
the  scale  sample  below,  but  not  as  good  as  the  one  above,  i.  e. 
better  than  3.8  but  not  as  good  as  6,  it  was  to  be  given  the  mark 
of  the  intermediate  step,  in  this  case  5.  The  mark  was  placed  on 
the  back  of  the  specimen,  obscured  from  view,  and  the  paper 
rated  by  a  second  judge.  If  the  two  judges  agreed  the  paper 
was  not  scored  further.  If  they  disagreed  it  was  rated  by  a  third 
judge.  Then  if  two  of  the  scorers  agreed  their  mark  was  taken 
as  the  final  mark.  If  all  three  differed  the  intermediate  mark 
was  taken,  on  the  assumption  that  one  judge  rated  it  too  high 
and  the  other  too  low. 


Composition  95 

Before  scoring  the  papers  of  an  actual  class  the  teachers  who 
rated  the  specimens  were  given  some  preliminary  practice  in  the 
use  of  the  scale.  For  this  purpose  selected  specimens  of  known 
value  from  Thorndike's  "English  Composition,  150  Specimens 
Arranged  for  Use  in  Psychological  and  Educational  Experi- 
ments, ' '  were  used  in  many  cases,  though  not  in  all.  As  a  part 
of  the  preliminary  practice,  and  in  order  to  enable  teachers  to 
form  some  notion  of  the  advantages  of  marking  with*  a  scale, 
they  were  first  asked  to  rate  each  practice  specimen  on  a  scale 
of  100.  After  recording  these  ratings  they  were  asked  to  rate 
each  specimen  in  terms  of  the  scale.  To  convert  the  latter  to  a 
per  cent  basis  the  scale  ratings  were  multiplied  by  10.  When  all 
had  completed  their  ratings  the  correct  or  standard  value  for 
each  specimen  was  made  known.  The  number  of  points  which 
each  specimen  was  rated  too  high  or  too  low,  both  with  and  with- 
out the  scale,  was  then  recorded.  In  every  case  it  was  found 
that  the  group  of  teachers  as  a  whole  rated  more  accurately 
with  the  scale  than  without.  This  was  not  always  true  of  every 
teacher  nor  of  every  specimen.  In  most  schools  improvement 
resulting  from  the  use  of  the  scale  was  shown  by  a  decrease  in 
variation  from  the  correct  values  of  from  one-third  to  one-half 
of  that  when  judging  without  the  scale.  A  detailed  account  of 
the  preliminary  experiment  in  one  of  the  schools  tested  will  be 
found  in  the  issue  of  School  and  Society  for  February  2,  1918. 

In  this  school  fifteen  teachers  were  asked  to  rate  twelve  speci- 
mens. It  was  found  that  when  estimating  on  a  scale  of  100  they 
were  not  only  far  from  the  correct  value,  but  they  rated  almost 
invariably  too  high.  Mediocre  specimens  were  given  a  good 
nark.  On  the  other  hand  some  very  good  specimens  were  rated 
too  low,  because  the  teachers  failed  to  appreciate  their  real 
merits.  If  the  practice  of  rating  mediocre  specimens  too  high 
is  general  in  everyday  work,  and  there  is  good  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  it  is,  teachers  are  undoubtedly  not  getting  the  best 
cut  of  their  pupils.  Instead  of  stimulating  pupils  to  the  highest 
quality  of  thinking  they  are  capable  of,  the  teachers  are  too 
readily  satisfied  with  mediocre  efforts.  The  occasional  use'of  a 
scale  to  measure  the  quality  of  children's  compositions  should 
do  much  to  stimulate  better  work  in  composition. 

When  asked  to  grade  specimens  for  their  general  merit  on  a 
scale  of  100,  the  teachers,  as  teachers  in  most  schools,  complained 


96  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

that  they  must  know  the  grade  to  which  a  given  specimen  be- 
longed. This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  teachers  use  one  arbitrary 
standard  in  one  grade  and  another  in  the  next.  If  they  are 
asked  to  tell  what  a  mark  of  80%  on  a  seventh  grade  paper 
should  be  if  that  paper  were  produced  in  the  sixth,  they  are 
utterly  at  sea.  The  fact  that  these  teachers  estimated  poor 
specimens  unduly  high  and  that  they  underestimated  some  of  the 
very  bes*t,  seems  to  be  good  evidence  that  teachers  ordinarily 
mark  on  the  basis  of  their  general  impressions.  When  they  are 
asked  to  rate  a  composition  with  a  scale,  and  to  make  general 
merit  the  basis  of  their  rating,  they  are  not  adopting  a  basis 
which  is  essentially  new  or  different. 

These  .15  teachers  were  on  the  average  19.1  points  away  from 
the  correct  or  standard  value  for  each  specimen  when  judging 
upon  a  100  per  cent  basis.  When  they  used  the  Trabue  scale 
to  aid  them  in  their  rating  they  averaged  11.6  points  from  the 
standard  value.  Thus  they  improved  their  judgments  by  an 
average  of  7.5  points  or  39.1%  for  each  specimen,  in  their  first 
efforts  at  using  a  scale.  With  continued  use  they  could  doubt- 
less improve  their  ratings  still  more.  Experiments  in  judging 
handwriting  indicate  that  improvement  in  accuracy  of  rating 
with  a  scale  continues  over  a  considerable  period  of  practice. 
(See  Gray,  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  Feb.  1915).  If 
improvement  continues  in  judging  such  a  simple  function  as 
handwriting,  fhere  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  would  not  con- 
tinue to  improve  in  a  complex  function  like  composition.  The 
writer  found  in  a  single  experiment  with  fifteen  judges  that  im- 
provement in  rating  composition  continued  to  show  in  each  of 
the  four  successive  practice  periods. 

Not  only  did  the  judgment  of  these  teachers  as  a  whole  im- 
prove when  aided  by  a  scale,  but  the  judgment  of  every  teacher, 
except  one,  improved  on  one-half  or  more  of  the  specimens. 
This  one  teacher  was  the  best  of  the  twelve  judges  without  the 
scale.  Yet  she  improved  on  four  of  the  twelve  specimens.  She 
rated  six  the  same  in  both  cases.  On  two  she  did  not  judge  as 
accurately.  Out  of  180  individual  ratings  required  (i.  e.  15 
teachers  judging  12  specimens)  125  or  69.4%  showed  a  gain,  20 
remained  the  same  and  35  were  not  as  good  when  using  the  scale. 
The  results  of  this  experiment  indicate  the  increase  in  accuracy 
of  judging  compositions  to  be  gained  from  the  use  of  a  scale. 


Composition 


97 


The  Median  Scores.  What  is  the  quality  of  the  compositions 
which  Wisconsin  children  write?  The  median  scores  for  each 
city  by  grades  together  with  the  date  of  the  test  and  the  sections 
tested  are  shown  in  Table  42.  The  median  for  all  children 
tested,  together  with  Trabue's  proposed  standards  are  given  at 
the  foot  of  the  table.  The  schools  have  been  arranged  in  ap- 
proximate order  of  the  portion  of  the  work  of  the  grade  which  the 
children  had  on  the  average  completed. 

TABLE  42. — Median  Scores  in  Composition  by  Cities1 


Cities 

Date 
tested 

Section 
tested 

Ill 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

NO.  Of 
children 
tested 

1 

9/28/16 

B 

3.9 

4.9 

79 

2 

10/  3/16 

B 

2.4 

4.0 

4.4 

4.9 

5.6 

5  0 

530 

3 
4 
5 

10/  9/16 
10/23/16 

11/27/16 

B 
B 
B 

2.7 
2.9 
3.2 

3.0 

3.7 
4.3 

3.7 
4.2 
4.7 

4.2 
4.6 
5.0 

4.3 
5.3 

"t.s" 

5.7 

"a'.i" 

331 
467 
344 

6 

12  /  5/16 

B 

1.9 

2.3 

2  4 

4  2 

4  4 

4 

315 

7 

12/12/16 

B 

1.6 

2  6 

2  7 

3  7 

.7  ' 

331 

8 

I/  9/17 

B 

2.6 

2.5 

3  9 

4  2 

5  4 

9 

353 

9 

I/     /17 

A&B 

2.6 

2.8 

3.3 

3.8 

4.0 

2 

1  209 

10 

11 

3/24/17 
Sf  8/17 

A&B 
A 

1.7 

2.4 
2.9 

2.8 
3.7 

3.7 
4.4 

3.8 
4.2 

.3 

5.9 

6.9 

1,208 
84 

12 

4/10/17 

A 

2.0 

2.1 

3.9 

4.2 

4.1 

4.5 

186 

13 
14 
15 

4/12/17 
6/  4/17 
6/  6/17 

A 
A&B 
A&B 

1.7 
1.7A 

3.0 
2.9 
3.2 

3.5 
3.6B 

4.2 
'i'.SA 

3.8 
5.3B 
4.5A 

4.3 

5.4B 
5.6A 

4.9 

5.0 

5.4 

169 
128 
114 

Total.... 

5  848 

Combined 
1'rabue's 

Median   .. 
Standard.  . 



2.0 

2.7 
3.5 

3.4 
4  0 

4.0 
4.5 

4.3 

5.0 

4.6 
5.5 

5.8 
6.0 

6.6 
6  5 

6.4 
6  9 

1  Those  desiring  to  make  comparisons  with  schools  outside  of  Wisconsin  may  do  so  by  refer- 
ring to  page  287  of  "An  Educational  Survey  of  Janesville,  Wisconsin." 

The  children  as  a  whole  in  these  Wisconsin  cities  do  not  make 
a  commendable  showing.  There  is,  however,  a  considerable  dif- 
ference between  the  scores  of  different  cities.  The  median  for 
all  eighth  grades  is  only  4.6  which  means  the  average  eighth 
grade  pupils  did  not  write  a  composition  as  good  as  sample  5 
on  the  Trabue  Scale.  Median  sixth  grade  children  did  little 
better  than  the  sample  of  the  scale  valued  at  3.8.  The  median 
of  2  for  the  third  grade  is  just  above  Trabue's  sample  1.9.  The 
progress  from  median  third  grade  performance  to  median 
eighth  grade  performance  is  less  than  three  steps  on  the  Trabue 
scale.  This  is  certainly  inadequate  improvement  for  five  addi- 
tional years  of  effort.  In  the  best  schools  the  median  score  was 
an  entire  step  and  sometimes  as  much  as  two  steps  higher  on  the 
Why  this  difference,  or  why  some  schools  should  do  much 


98  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

better  than  others  is  somewhat  difficult  to  understand.  In  some 
cases  the  scores  may  have  been  somewhat  lenient,  but  the  prin- 
cipal cause  is  a  difference  in  teaching.  Composition  is  better 
taught  in  some  schools  than  in  others.  A  single  illustration  will 
make  this  clearer. 

City  No.  4  made  a  good  showing  in  the  elementary  grades, 
particularly  when  the  date  of  the  test  is  considered.  This  school 
gives  much  attention  to  oral  composition.  The  socialized  recita- 
tion, in  which  pupils  are  encouraged  to  express  themselves  freely, 
is  in  use  in  this  school.  These  two  facts  have  resulted  in  shift- 
ing the  major  emphasis  in  language  teaching  from  mechanics  to 
thought  work.  The  children  in  this  school,  more  so  than  in  some 
others,  are  primarily  concerned  with  what  they  have  to  say. 
They  are  concerned  with  saying  something  worth  while  first  of 
all.  The  mechanics,  the  cast,  or  framework,  for  what  they  say 
is  secondary.  This  does  not  mean  that  they  do  not  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  the  necessary  mechanics  of  good  composition  equal 
to  that  of  other  children,  but  they  do  it  as  a  result  of  a  felt  need 
for  clothing  what  they  have  to  say.  A  few  selected  papers  from 
the  test  in  this  school  follow : 

By  a  Fourth  grade  girl — age  10.    Rated  as  3.8 

Next  Saturday  I  would  like  to  go  to  Appleton  and  play  with  my 
cousins. 

I  would  go  with  my  mother,  father,  and  sister. 

I  would  go  at  10  a  clock  in  the  morning  so  I  would  have  lots  of  time 
to  play  or  do  anything  that  came  along. 

I  would  go  and  have  a  ice-cream  with  my  cousins  in  the  afternoon. 
"When  I  came  home  I  would  spend  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  playing 
or  doing  something  like  that. 

Then  I  would  eat  supper  and  after  supper  go  home  on  the  street-car 
at  about  8  a  clock. 
When  I  came  home  I  would  go  to  bed. 

By  an  Eighth  grade  "boy — age  12.    Rated  as  6 

Saturday  is  the  only  vacation  day  of  the  whole  school  term  except- 
ing holidays  of  which  there  are  very  few.  I  should  like  to  go  rabbit 
hunting  next  Saturday  out  to  some  farm.  It  is  just  the  rabbit  sea- 
son now  and  a  fellow's  fingers  are  twitching  for  the  want  of  shooting 
a  rabbit.  Besides  hunting  there  is  pleasure  in  roaming  around  in  the 
woods  or  plying  about  a  marsh  or  swamp  in  a  boat.  There  are  many 
other  things  to  shoot  such  as  squirrels,  partridges,  and  ducks.  I 
would  like  to  know  of  any  fellow  who  would  not  like  to  do  this  next 
Saturday. 

'By  a  Tenth  grade  "boy — age  16.    Rated  as  7.2 

I  would  like  to  spend  next  Saturday  along  the  lake  shore  hunting 
ducks.  Hunting  is  one  of  the  finest  sports  there  is  and  as  the  duck 
season  is  now  open  and  the  ducks  seem  quite  plentiful,  nothing  appeals 


Composition  99 

to  me  more  than  a  days  shootting.  The  very  thought  is  invigorating. 
Anyone  who  has  ever  hunted  knows  what  the  attraction  is.  There  are 
no  words  to  explain  how  you  feel  when  sitting  behind  a  "blind"  watch- 
ing a  flock  of  ducks  come  sweeping,  pass,  circle,  and  then  land  among 
the  decoys  with  a  splash.  Then  the  sport  comes,  when  you  rise  up  and 
pump  shell  after  shell  into  the  flock  and  then  go  out  in  the  skiff  and 
gather  in  your  game.  To  hunt  is  the  instinct  of  man  which  he  in- 
herited from  his  primeval  forefathers.  And  through  all  the  ages  in 
which  man  has  become  slowly  civilized  that  instinct  has  still  remained, 
even  though  greatly  moderated. 

The  medians  in  schools  which  made  high  scores  should  serve 
as  a  tentative  goal  which  others  may  hope  to  attain  with  im- 
proved teaching.  Certainly  a  school  in  which  language  work 
is  well  taught  should  reach  Trabue's  standard.  While  it  is  an 
ideal  rather  than  an  actual  standard,  it  appears  to  be  neither 
impossible  of  attainment  nor  too  exacting.  That  this  standard 
is  not  too  exacting  may  be  judged  by  referring  to  the  scale  speci- 
mens. In  fact  it  is  lower  than  the  best  fourth  of  the  pupils  in 
several  of  our  grades  are  already  doing.  This  may  be  seen  by 
reference  to  the  figures  for  the  upper  25  percentile  in  Table  43. 
Surely  it  is  not  asking  too  much  that  seventh  grade  children 
write  a  composition  as  good  as  quality  five,  or  that  pupils  in  the 
ninth  grade  of  the  high  school  write  as  well  as  quality  six.  That 
the  standards  set  by  Trabue  from  grade  four  on  are  not  impos- 
sible of  attainment,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  some  schools  in 
every  elementary  grade  did  even  better. 

The  Variation  Within  Grades — Do  All  Children  of  a  Grade  do 
Equally  Well?  The  number  of  pupils  in  each  grade  whose 
papers  were  rated  at  each  of  the  different  steps  may  be  seen 
from  Table  43.  The  median  and  the  lower  and  upper  25  percen- 
tile scores  are  shown  at  the  foot  of  the  tables.  One-half  in  each 
grade  did  better  than  the  median  and  the  other  half  did  not  do 
as  well.  Three-fourths  of  the  pupils  in  each  grade  did  better 
than  the  lower  25  percentile  and  one-fourth  did  better  than  the 
upper  25  percentile.  There  is  a  very  decided  difference  between 
the  composition  attainments  of  the  best  and  poorest  in  every 
grade.  The  range  of  third  grade  scores  extends  more  than 
half  the  length  of  the  scale.  One-half  of  the  children  however 
were  between  1.3  and  -2.8.  In  the  sixth  and  seventh  grade  the 
range  extends  almost  over  the  entire  scale.  This  means  that 
compositions  produced  by  children  in  these  grades  range  from 
the  very  poorest  to  almost  the  very  best  that  we  may  expect. 


100 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


TABLE   43.— Distribution  of   Composition  Scores  According   to    Quality 

For  15  Cities 


Value  of 
specimen1 

Ill 

IV 

! 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

No.  of 
children 
tested 

0 

59 

34 

>JO 

6 

1 

4 

124 

1.88 
2.60 

216 
140 

314 

389 

139 
283 

62 
197 

34 
121 

12 

84 

1 
3 

1 

778 
1  '?18 

3.69 
4.74 
5.85 
6.75 
7.72 
8  3°: 

50 
12 
1 

254 
80 

42 
10 
3 

318 
172 
72 
21 
1 

356 
292 
107 
61 
18 
4 

261 
226 
126 
71 
21 
2 

212 
204 
159 

85 
23 

24 
55 

87 
65 
22 

7 
25 
35 
52 
31 
16 

3 
1 

17 

16 
7 
1 

1,485 
1,067 
646 
381 
126 
23 

Total 

478 

1  126 

1  026 

1  103 

863 

783 

257 

167 

45 

5  848 

Lower  25  percentile  

1.3 

1.9 

2.5 

3.2 

3.4 

3.6 

4.9 

5  6 

Median                .      .  . 

2  0 

2  7 

3  4 

4  0 

4  3 

4  6 

5  8 

6  6 

6  4 

Upper  25  percentile  

2.8 

3.6 

4.3 

5.0 

5.3 

5.7 

6.6 

7.4 



1  The  results  have  been  entered  in  terms  of  the  steps  on  the  original  Hillegas  scale. 
The  results  for  the  few  schools  reported  in  terms  of  the  Trabue  scale  have  been  distrib- 
uted according  to  the  nearest  Hillegas  scale  step  to  which  each  pupil's  score  corre- 
sponded. Thus  specimens  rated  3.8  on  the  Trabue  scale  appear  opposite  3.69  in  the 
table. 

The  lamentable  thing  about  it  all  is  that  these  very  poor  and 
very  good  composition  writers  are  too  often  in  the  same  grade, 
and  often  in  the  same  class  with  no  provision  being  made  to  fit 
the  teaching  to  their  varying  needs.  Some  children  have  been 
promoted  to  the  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  grades  who  are 
in  no  sense  capable  of  doing  the  quality  of  language  work  that 
should  be  expected  in  these  grades.  Evidently  the  ability  to 
write  an  average  composition  does  not  play  the  part  that  it 
should  in  determining  fitness  for  promotion  in  some  schools. 
Many  of  these  children  could  derive  greater  benefits  from  the 
study  of  composition  if  placed  in  grades  or  classes  where  the 
work  is  nearer  their  level  of  comprehension. 

The  upper  5%  of  the  fourth  grade  pupils  who  already  do  as 
well  as  median  eighth  graders,  or  the  upper  quarter  who  now 
exceed  the  lower  quarter  of  the  seventh  grade,  will  never  be  urged 
to  the  limit  of  their  capacities  unless  they  are  given  a  different 
type  of  work,  or  are  advanced  more  rapidly  than  others  in  the 
grade.  Unless  their  ability  is  recognized  they  are  apt  to  improve 
but  little  during  the  remaining  years.  Unless  teachers  can  ap- 
peal to  their  imagination  or  can  tax  their  real  thought  powers, 
they  may  become  indifferent  toward  language  work  and  even 
grow  to  dislike  school.  This  will  be  particularly  true  if  teach- 


Composition  .   J      101 

ers-  insist  upon  drilling  all  of  the  class  upon  rules  of  formal 
grammar.  What  we  have  said  of  the  fourth  grade  applies 
equally  well  to  other  grades.  These  brighter  children  in  each 
grade  should  be  permitted  to  advance  more  rapidly.  Work 
should  be  given  them  that  is  more  nearly  within  their  capacity. 
Wherever  possible  the  brighter  children  should  be  grouped  to- 
gether for  language  work,  even  though  it  be  only  a  small  group 
within  a  given  grade  or  class. 

Similarly  children  of  less  capacity  should  be  grouped  together. 
Their  deficiencies  may  be  due  to  unfavorable  language  condi- 
tions in  the  home,  to  inferior  mental  endowments,  or  to  poor  pre- 
vious school  training.  But  whatever  the  cause,  the  fact  of  their 
lack  of  development  should  be  recognized.  They  should  not  be 
thrown  in  "helter-skelter"  with  others  who  are  unusually  ac- 
complished to  succeed  or  flounder  as  best  they  may.  They  should 
be  grouped  with  others  who  for  the  time  being  are  approximately 
their  equals. 

When  children  are  grouped  as  we  have  indicated,  teachers 
can  more  nearly  adapt  the  work  of  the  course  to  individual 
needs.  The  lockstep  method  of  teaching  all  pupils  in  a  class  as 
though  they  were  of  the  same  level  of  attainment  and  thinking 
ability  needs  to  be  broken  down  in  language  teaching  even  more 
so  than  in  other  subjects.  Slavish  adherence  to  the  "equality" 
method"  of  treatment  perhaps  more  than  any  other  cause  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  poor  showing  in  many  schools.  It  accounts 
for  the  unusual  degree  of  overlapping  of  abilities,  i.  e.  where 
large  numbers  of  children  in  lower  grades  excelled  no  small  pro- 
portion of  the  children  in  several  grades  above.  This  is  re- 
vealed in  Table  43. 

The  Kind  of  Work  Which  Teachers  Demand — WThat  Qualities 
do  teachers  value  in  children's  compositions f  Another  factor 
only  slightly  less  responsible  for  poor  results  in  language,  is  the 
formal  type  of  excellence  which  teachers  expect,  and  with  which 
they  are  satisfied.  So  long  as  teachers  prize  minor  qualities  to 
the  neglect  of  the  more  valuable  attributes  of  good  composition 
they  will  fail  to  develop  the  best  in  children.  Mechanical  per- 
fection is  too  frequently  the  aim,  both  in  the  elmentary  grades 
and  in  the  high  school.  Content  receives  secondary  considera- 
tion. Just  as  overemphasis  upon  formal  grammar  fails  to  de- 
velop children  who  will  habitually  use  correct  form  in  written 


102  The  TTse  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

and  spoken  English,  so  too  overemphasis  upon  the  mechanical 
phases  of  composition  fails  to  develop  children  who  can  produce 
oral  or  written  compositions  of  genuine  merit.  Too  rarely  does 
it  develop  in  a  child  a  desire  to  express  himself.  All  too  often 
composition  writing  becomes  a  drudgery,  and  not  a  privilege. 

Almost  without  exception  the  teachers  in  schools  tested,  when 
asked  to  list  the  qualities  which  they  prize  in  composition,  men- 
tion mechanical  qualities  first.  Among  these  they  give : 

Spelling  Paragraphing  Use  of  capitals 

Punctuation  Grammar  Sentence  structure 

Apparently  they  would  exercise  little  better  judgment  in  grad 
ing  a  paper  than  does  the  college  professor  who  marks  a  paper 
"failed"  if  it  contains  three  misspelled  words,  regardless  of  the 
ideas  it  expresses.  Too  many  teachers,  it  is  feared,  have  been 
influenced  by  the  type  of  college  instructor  who  fails  a  theme 
for  what  is  commonly  known  as  a  "comma"  fault,  serious  though 
it  may  be  mechanically.  It  was  usually  only  after  some  discus- 
sion that  thought  qualities,  such  as  the  following,  were  brought 
out: 

Unity  Maturity  of  thought  Emphasis 

Coherence  Life  Vividness 

Originality  Imagination  Color 

Choice  of  words  Visualization  Figurative  language 

Many  of  the  mechanical  features  are  such  as  would  pass  un- 
noticed in  oral  composition,  and  therein  lies  one  advantage  to  be 
gained  from  oral  language  work.  Mechanical  features  are  less 
apt  to  be  placed  in  the  foreground.  Thought  qualities  have  a 
greater  possibility  of  being  stimulated.  Insufficient  attention 
to  oral  composition  is  then  another  cause,  which  helps  to  account 
for  the  unsatisfactory  attainments  of  children  in  composition. 

But  even  though  gain  will  be  made  by  a  greater  stress  upon 
oral  language,  the  best  results  can  never  be  expected  until  teach- 
ers aim  consciously  and  definitely  at  the  development  of  the 
thought  side.  They  must  lead  their  pupils  first  of  all  to  think, 
to  observe,  to  have  ideas,  to  reflect  upon  their  experiences,  and 
to  tell  them.  Teachers  must  concern  themselves  above  all  with 
what  children  have  to  say,  and  only  secondarily  with  the  way,  in 


Composition  103 

which  it  is  said.  Under  this  system,  form  will  not  be  neglected 
but  ability  to  use  it  will  be  acquired  because  the  child  feels  a 
need  for  saying  what  he  has  to  say  in  the  most  effective  way. 

SOME  SUGGESTED  REFERENCES 
Discussions  on  the  Measurement  of  Composition 

Ballou,  F.  W.     Scales  for   the  Measurement  of  English  Composition. 

Harvard-Newton  Bui.  No.  2. 
Breed  &  Prostic.     Measuring  English  Composition  in  the  Sixth  Grade. 

Elem.  School  Journal,  Jan.  1917. 
Chapman  &  Rush.     The  Scientific  Measurement  of  Classroom  Products. 

Composition  Scales.     Silver  Burdett  &  Co. 
Haggerty    &   Brown.     The   Measurement   of   Improvement   in   English 

Composition.     English  Journal,  Oct.  1917. 
Haggerty,  M.  E.     Measurements  &  Diagnoses  as  Aids  to  Supervision. 

School  &  Society,  Sept.  8,  1917. 
Hillegas,  M.  B.    A  Scale  for  the  Measuremnet  of  English  Composition 

by  Young  People.     Bur.  of  Publications,  Teachers  College,  N.   Y. 

Also  in  Teachers  College  Record,  Sept.  1912. 
Hudelson,    E.     Standards    &    Measurements    in    English    Composition 

Second  Conference  on  Educ.  Meas.,  Indiana  Univ.,  Bloomington. 
Kelly,    P.    J.     Teachers    Marks,    Composition.     Bur.    of    Publications, 

Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 
Stark,   W.   E.  Measurement  of  Eighth   Grade   Composition.     School  & 

Society,  Aug.  7,  1915. 

Theisen,  W.  W.  Improving  Teachers'  Estimates  of  Composition  Speci- 
mens with  the  Aid  of  the  Trabue  Nassau  County  Scale.  School  & 

Society,  Feb.  2,  1918. 
Trabue,  M.   R.     Supplementing  the  Hillegas   Scale.     Teachers   College 

Record,  Jan.  1917. 
Willing,  M.  H.     The  Measurement  of  Written  Composition  in  Grades 

IV  to  VIII.     English  Journal,  Mar.  1918. 
See  also  various  school  surveys:     Butte,  Salt  Lake,  Denver,  Janesville, 

Grand  Rapids,  Nassau  Co.,  N.  Y.,  St.  Paul. 

Composition  Scales 

Ballou's    Harvard    Newton   Composition    Scales.    Harvard    University 

Press.     Price  lOc. 
Hillegas — Scale  for  English  Composition  by  Young  People.    Bureau  of 

Publications,  Teachers  College,  N.  y.     Price,  3c;   in  quantities,  2c. 
Thorndike  Extension  of  the  Hillegas  Scale.    Bureau  of  Publications, 

Teachers  College,  N.  Y.     Price,  8c;  in  quantities,  5c. 
Trabue's  Nassau  County  Supplement'  to  the  Hillegas  Scale.    Bureau  of 

Publications,  Teachers  College,  N.  Y.     Price,  8c;  in  quantities,  5c. 
Willing  Scale.    Used  in  the  Denver  Survey.     Bureau  of  Measurements 

and  Standards,  Emporia,  Kansas. 

Methods  of  Teaching  Composition 

Charters,  W.  W.  Teaching  the  Common  Branches.  Row,  Peterson  & 
Co. 

Charters,  W.  W.  16th  Year  Book,  National  Society  for  the  Study  of 
Education,  Part  I.  Minimal  Essentials  in  Elementary  Language 
and  Grammar.  Public  School  Publishing  Co.,  Bloomington,  111. 


104  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

Deming,  A.  G.    Language  Games  for  all  Grades.    Beckley  Cardy  Co. 

Earhart  &  Small.  English  in  the  Elementary  School,  Elementary 
School  Journal,  September  1915. 

Goldwasser,  I.  E.  Method  amd  Methods  in  Teaching  of  English.  Heath 
&  Co. 

Hosic,  J.  F.  Composition  in  Rapeer's  book,  Teaching  Elementary 
School  Subjects.  Scribners. 

Hosic,  J.  P.  Reorganization  of  English  in  Secondary  Schools.  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin  No.  2,  1917. 

Hosic,  J.  P.  The  Elementary  Course  in  English.  University  of  Chi- 
cago Press. 

Hosic,  P.  J.  17th  Year  Book,  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Edu- 
cation. Composition  Standards  in  Grades  Two  to  Eight,  Public 
School  Publishing  Co.,  Bloomington,  111. 

Klapper,  Paul.     The  Teaching  of  English.     Appleton  &  Co. 

Leiper,  M.  A.     Language  Work  in  Elementary  Schools.     Ginn  &  Co. 

Palmer,  G.  H.     Self  Cultivation  in  English.     Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Parker,  S.  C.  Methods  of  Teaching  in  High  Schools.  Chapter  XI. 
Ginn  &  Co. 

Parkinson,  L.  D.  Variety  in  Composition  Assignments.  English 
Journal,  June  1918. 

Sheridan,  B.  M.     Speaking  and  Writing  in  English.     Sanborn  &  Co. 


CHAPTER  V 


READING 

For  the  year  1916-17  systematic  attempts  to  measure  success 
in  reading  achievements  were  confined  to  silent  reading.  Other 
phases  of  reading  work  such  as  rates  of  silent  and  oral  reading, 
expression  in  oral  reading,  and  ability  to  read  orally  without 
error,  all  of  which  are  important  for  certain  purposes,  and  nearly 
all  of  which  receive  distinct  emphasis  in  the  elementary  grades, 
might  be  tested.  Those  who  are  especially  interested  in  test- 
ing these  phases  of  reading  are  referred  to  the  works  of  Gray. 
Among  these  are  his  monograph,  * '  Studies  in  Elementary  School 
Reading",  and  his  reports  on  reading  in  connection  with  the 
St.  Louis  and  Grand  Rapids  surveys. 

While  it  would  have  been  desirable  oftentimes  to  have  secured 
data  on  each  of  the  various  phases  of  reading  ability,  it  was  de- 
cided not  to  recommend  tests  requiring  a  large  amount  of  labor, 
or  which  required  scorers  to  exercise  considerable  judgment  in 
marking  papers.  To  those  who  desired  to  measure  results  in 
reading  it  was  suggested  that  success  in  thought  reading  be 
tested  first,  on  account  of  its  overshadowing  importance. 

Progress  in  and  out  of  school  depends  largely  upon  ability  to 
interpret  the  printed  page.  While  the  first  few  years  of  a 
child's  reading  efforts  are  devoted  largely  to  a  mastery  of  me- 
chanics it  is  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  later  to  understand 
the  language  of  books  and  to  derive  information  from  history, 
geography,  science  and  literature.  The  child  who  is  unable  to 
grasp  clearly  the  thought  of  the  problem  in  arithmetic,  or  the 
events  recorded  in  his  history  text,  has  little  hope  of  success  in 
these  subjects.  It  is  of  small  concern  to  his  successful  advance 
whether  his  oral  reading  is  fluent  and  devoid  of  mechanical  er- 
rors. 

If  a  child  is  to  go  through  school  and  out  into  life  as  a  clear 
thinking  progressive  citizen,  he  must  be  trained  not  only  to  read, 


106  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

but  to  relish  reading  for  the  information  it  gives  him  and  for  the 
growth  of  ideas  that  it  stimulates.  No  other  mission  which  the 
school  has  is  more  important  than  such  training.  Nothing  is 
of  more  consequence  to  a  nation  than  a  body  of  growing  thinkers. 
Its  citizens  must  be  trained  to  read  what  its  thinkers  are  writ- 
ing, and  to  exercise  judgment  as  to  the  worth  of  what  is  read. 
The  small  proportion  of  our  citizens  who  read  the  kind  of  ma- 
terial which  stimulates  intelligent  thinking,  can  be  charged 
largely  to  the  failure  of  the  schools  in  the  past  to  develop  the 
right  kind  of  reading  habits.  It  was  for  reasons  such  as  these, 
that  tests  which  measure  ability  to  grasp  the  thought  of  the 
printed  page  were  favored  when  recommendations  were  made 
to  those  desiring  reading  tests. 

In  suggesting  reading  tests  to  be  used  during  the  year  1916- 
17,  the  writer  more  often  proposed  the  Kansas  Silent  Reading 
Test  than  any  other.  The  test  not  only  measures  success  in 
rapid  thought  reading  but  is  easily  administered  and  scored. 
The  latter  consideration  was  especially  important  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  few  teachers  and  superintendents  in  Wisconsin  had 
had  previous  experience  in  giving  standard  tests.  While  criti- 
cism might  be  offered  against  certain  of  the  paragraphs  on  the 
test,  the  simplicity  and  definiteness  of  the  instructions  for  giv- 
ing the  test,  scoring  the  papers,  and  tabulating  the  results 
seemed  to  outweigh  any  objections  that  might  be  raised. 

The  Kansas  Silent  Reading  Test,  the  nature  of  which  may  be 
judged  from  the  selected  paragraphs  shown  on  the  page  follow- 
ing, combines  the  elements  of  thought  and  speed.  It  contains 
a  greater  number  of  such  paragraphs  than  can  be  answered  by 
any  pupil  in  the  time  given,  five  minutes.  The  paragraphs  vary 
from  those  that  are  very  easy  to  those  that  are  quite  difficult. 
A  definite  value  is  attached  to  each  and  a  pupil's  score  repre- 
sents the  sum  of  the  values  attached  to  paragraphs  correctly  in- 
terpreted. There  are  three  tests  in  the  series,  Test  I  for  grades 
three,  four  and  five,  Test  II  for  grades  six,  seven  and  eight,  and 
Test  III  for  high  school  grades. 

Eighteen  cities  reported  their  results  on  the  test  in  the  ele- 
mentary grades.  Two  of  them  included  the  scores  made  by  high 
school  students.  The  test  in  15  of  these  cities  was  given  by  the 
writer.  In  most  instances,  however,  he  was  assisted  by  the  su- 
perintendent or  some  person  designated  by  him.  In  each  case 


Reading 


107 


Value 
2.6 


No.  8. 

Here  are  two  squares.      Draw  a  line  from  the  upper  left-hand 
corner  of  the  small  square  to  the  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the 

Ir- 


D 


No.  9.    . 

A  farmer  puts  one-half  the  hay  from  his  field  Into  the  first  stack, 
then  two-thirds  of  what  is  left  into  a  second  stack,  and  the  remain- 
der in  a  third  stack.  Which  stack  is  the  largest? 


No.  10. 

Below  are  two  squares  and  a  circle.  If  the  circle  is  the  largest 
of  the  three,  put  a  cross  in  it.  If  one  square  is  smaller  than  the 
circle,  put  a  cross  in  the  large  square.  If  both  squares  are  smaller 
than  the  circle,  put  a  cross  in  the  small  square, 


O  Q 


No.  11. 


"The  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  day, 

The  lowing  herds  wind  slowly  o'er  the  lea, 

The  ploughman  homeward  plods  his  weary  way. 

And  leaves  the  world  to  darkness  and  to  me."— (Gray) 

Study  the  above  quotation  carefully.  The  author  lets  us  know  his 
feeling  about  the  coming  of  night.  If  you  think  his  feeling  is  one 
of  fear  and  dread,  underscore  curfew.  If  his  feeling  is  one  of  peace 
and  gladness,  underscore  ploughman. 


No.   12. 

Read  these  carefully: 
Bears  are  larger  than  bugs. 
Houses  are  larger  than  bears. 
Mountains  are  larger  than  houses. 
Then  bugs  are  not  as  large  as  mountains. 

I  have  tried  to  make  no  false  statement  among  these  four.  If  I 
have  succeeded,  underline  the  word  success.  If  I  have  failed,  un- 
derline the  word  failure. 


success 


failure 


108 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


the  person  assisting,  first  observed  the  writer  give  the  test,  and 
was  instructed  by  him  before  attempting  to  give  the  test  himself. 
The  principal  requirement  necessitating  caution  was  that  of  ac- 
curate timing.  In  the  three  schools  in  which  the  tests  were  not 
given  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  writer,  the  persons 
in  charge  were  experienced  in  giving  standard  tests. 
The  Median  Scores  by  Cities 

How  well  do  Wisconsin  children  read?  The  median  scores, 
the  date  of  the  test  and  the  sections  tested  for  each  city  are  in- 
dicated in  Table  44.  "B"  sections  in  schools  tested  during  the 
first  semester,  or  "  A  "  sections  in  those  tested  during  the  second 
refer  to  schools  having  only  annual  promotions. 

TABLE  44. — Median  Scores  For  Kansas  Silent  Reading  Test  By  Cities 


Cities 

Date  of 
test 

Section 
tested 

Test  I 

Test  II 

Test  III 

No. 

tested 

in 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 

Median 
Standa 

9/28/16 
10/  3/16 
10/10/16 
2/12/17 
ll/  2/16 
ll/  9/16 
11/27/16 
12/  7/16 
12/12/16 
1/10/17 
I/  2/17 
3/24/17 
3/  6/17 
8/  8/17 
5/10/17 
I/    /IT 
4/10/17 
4/12/17 

B 
B 
B 
A&B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
B 
A&B 
A 
A 
A 
A&B 
A 
A 

"i!2 

1.7 
3.3 

5.7 
3.4 
2.3 
14.0 

4^4 

5.1 
5.3 
6.9 
7.0 
10.7 
9.3 

14.6 
12.1 
15.3 
12.0 
13.3 
12.8 
13.5 
13.1 

17.3 
12.0 
11.1 
13.8 
11.9 
12.8 
14.6 
14.4 
10.7 

'l4.2 
17.8 
15.3 
16.7 
15.2 
19.2 
15.9 
12.2 

'ieis' 

20.2 
18.9 
20.4 
28.1 
16.2 
17.4 
16.5 

17.6 

30.5 

23.2 



132 
552 
431 
494 
719 
476 
422 
316 
96 
358 
152 
1,390 
517 
128 
303 
760 
228 
75 

7,549 







5.3 
11.9 
4.9 
5.3 
4.5 
2.1 
6.0 
6.3 
0.8 

li.o 

17.4 
9.2 
10.0 
11.2 
6.3 
11.8 
11.8 
8.5 

17.5 
14.8 
12.1 
14.7 
14.7 
10.6 
16.9 
15.0 
12.0 

19.0 
14.5 
14.7 
14.6 
15.3 

'2o!6' 
10.8 
13.5 

18.0 
19.2 
16.5 
21.6 
16.0 
15.9 
20.1 
17.0 
16.5 

19.6 
21.3 
20.1 
17.7 
13.0 
16.3 
30.8 
19.8 
20.3 

22.4 

24.4 

27.6 

26.4 





4.3 

8.6 

13.6 

14.1 

17.1 

19.8 

rd     



5.3 

9.5 

13.2 

13.9 

16.  z 

jy.2 









The  cities  are  arranged  in  the  approximate  order  of  the  por- 
tion of  the  work  of  the  grade  which  the  children  had  on  the  av- 
erage completed  at  the  time  of  the  test.  Thus,  pupils  in  the 
first  city  of  the  table  had  completed  less  than  one-ninth  of  the 
work  of  the  grade,  while  those  in  the  eighteenth  had  completed 
approximately  eight-ninths  of  the  grade.  Children  in  cities 
.near  the  foot  of  the  table  should  score  much  higher  than  those 
in  cities  near  the  top. 

An  examination  of  the  table  reveals  the  fact  that  as  far  as 
these  schools  are  representative,  "Wisconsin  children  are  below 


Reading  109 

the  standard  in  the  third  and  fourth  grades.  This  is  in  line  with 
conclusions  drawn  from  reading  exercises  witnessed  in  these 
grades.  Few  teachers  give  sufficient  attention  to  training  young 
children  to  get  rapidly  and  accurately  the  thought  of  what  they 
read.  In  the  remaining  elementary  grades  Wisconsin  children 
read  better  than  the  standard  set  by  100,000  children  in  other 
states. 

The  table  reveals  further  that  different  schools  attain  different 
degrees  of  success  in  the  teaching  of  reading.  With  the  possible 
exception  of  the  scores  for  the  third  and  fourth  grades  of 
schools  tested  early  in  the  school  year,  the  median  scores  bear 
little  relation  to  the  work  of  the  grade  which  the  children  had 
completed.  Some  of  the  very  lowest  scores  were  made  late  in 
the  year. 

Since  Test  I  was  identical  in  grades  three,  four  and  five,  com- 
parisons may  be  made  between  these  grades.  Similarly  grades 
six,  seven  and  eight  in  which  Test  II  was  used  may  be  compared. 
Some  fifth  grade  classes  did  not  do  as  well  as  others  of  the 
fourth.  Likewise,  some  fourth  grade  classes  made  a  lower  me- 
dian score  than  some  third  classes,  and  some  even  lower  than  the 
standard  of  the  third  grade.  The  poorest  .eighth  grade  class 
scored  lower  than  the  standard  for  grade  six.  The  best  eighth 
grade  classes  scored  more  than  double  that  of  the  poorest.  The 
best  sixth  grade  score  is  nearly  double  that  of  the  poorest.  Such 
conditions  sre  unwarranted  and  cannot  be  accounted  for  on  any 
other  ground  than  that  some  schools  accomplish  much  less  than 
they  are  capable  of.  When  sixth  grade  classes  in  some  schools 
can  read  as  well  as  eighth  grade  classes  in  others,  as  happens, 
eighth  grade  teachers  should  be  asked  to  explain  why  their  chil- 
dren have  attained  no  greater  proficiency.  On  the  other  hand 
successful  teachers  in  the  sixth  grade,  and  elsewhere,  should  be 
asked  to  explain  the  secrets  of  their  success  in  teaching  reading. 
Demonstrations  should  be  arranged  which  other  teachers  may  be 
permitted  to  see  and  to  discuss.  Better  teaching,  closer  supervi- 
sion of  the  methods  employed,  and  more  careful  examination  of 
successful  methods  of  teaching  reading,  as  well  as  an  abundance 
of  suitable  reading  material  will  be  necessary  in  many  schools 
before  the  limit  of  the  possibilities  in  reading  development  can 
be  even  approached. 


110  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

The  scores  shown  for  school  11  and  for  the  third  grade  of 
school  8  deserve  mention.  For  the  latter  the  writer  verified  the 
results  by  examining  the  paper  of  each  child  in  the  single  class 
represented.  These  children  are  unusually  capable  and  will 
bear  watching  throughout  their  school  course.  School  11  made 
a  good  showing  not  only  in  the  third  grade  but  in  others.  It  is 
a  good  illustration  of  successful  results  attained  through  a  con- 
scious effort  to  develop  good  reading.  The  interest  of  the  su- 
perintendent in  this  city  led  him  to  measure  the  achievements 
of  the  pupils  in  other  standard  reading  tests.  For  this  purpose 
the  Starch  and  the  Thomdike  reading  tests  were  employed.  It 
is'  significant  that  the  children  again  far  exceeded  the  standards 
set.  Undoubtedly,  the  children  in  this  school  are  good  readers. 

Two  phases  of  the  method  of  teaching  reading  in  this  school 
account  in  a  measure  for  its  success.  One  of  these  is  the  group- 
ing of  the  children.  Pupils  of  a  given  grade  are  divided  for  the 
purposes  of  the  reading  recitation  into  several  small  groups. 
Each  group  reads  material  suited  to  the  abilities  of  the  children 
in  it.  As  many  reading  texts  may  be  in  use  at  a  given  moment 
as  there  are  groups.  Children  of  a  group  commonly  read  to  the 
other  members  of  their  own  group  while  the  teacher  passes  from 
one  group  to  the  next.  This  not  only  gives  a  pupil  an  oppor- 
tunity to  read  material  suited  to  his  own  ability  to  comprehend, 
but  it  gives  him  much  more  frequent  opportunity  to  read  than 
under  ordinary  classroom  methods.  He  spends  less  time  in  hear- 
ing some  one  else  read  what  is  no  longer  of  interest  to  him.  The 
other  phase  of  the  reading  method  in  this  school  which  accounts 
for  the  unusual  ability  of  the  children  is  the  large  amount  of 
reading  that  is  done  in  the  course  of  a  school  year.  As  a  re- 
sult, in  part  at  least,  of  the  frequent  opportunity  that  children 
have  to  read  under  the  grouping  system,  they  read  much  more 
than  the  average  number  of  books.  They  learn  to  read  by  read- 
ing. 

Certainly  the  success  attained  in  the  school  to  which  we  have 
just  referred  should  commend  the  method  for  trial  in  other 
school  systems.  The  writer's  observation  leads  him  to  believe 
that  the  mediocre  results  obtained  in  several  of  the  schools  is 
to  be  accounted  for  in  part  by  the  niggardly  policy  adopted  by 
school  boards  toward  the  purchase  of  sufficient  reading  material. 
In  some  schools  the  children  read  only  one-half  or  one-third  a's 


Reading  111 

many  books  as  in  others.  When  superintendents  are  asked  to 
account  for  it,  their  usual  reply  is,  that  the  board  has  been  un- 
willing to  purchase  additional  material,  and  that  teachers  do 
not  feel  warranted  in  asking  pupils  to  purchase  books  which 
they  will  use  but  a  few  short  weeks.  Such  an  undemocratic  pol- 
icy on  the  part  of  boards  of  education  cannot  be  too  severely 
condemned. 

A  policy  since  adopted  to  meet  this  situation  in  one  of  these 
schools  is  worthy  of  note.  On  the  strength  of  recommendations 
made,  the  board  purchased  a  number  of  sets  of  supplementary 
readers  but  not  in  sufficient  quantity  to  provide  all  buidings 
with  a  set  of  each.  Provision  is  .made  for  systematic  exchange 
of  sets  between  buildings.  On  a  certain  day  of  each  week, 
known  as  "book  exchange"  day,  sets  that  have  been  completed 
are  forwarded  to  the  superintendent's  office  which  acts  as  a  clear- 
Ing  house.  These  sets  are  apportioned  to  different  buildings  by 
the  supervisor  of  grades.  At  the  close  of  the  afternoon  session, 
messenger  boys  from  these  schools  come  for  the  books  which  are 
thus  available  for  use  on  the  following  day.  While  this  system 
is  especially  adapted  to  use  in  large  school  systems,  it  can  be 
employed  to  a  limited  extent  by  small  schools  in  neighboring 
villages.  At  the  comparatively  small  additional  cost  of  trans- 
portation, two  small  schools  could  under  a  cooperative  arrange- 
ment double  the  number  of  books  available. 

The  Distribution  of  Scores 

How  well  does  the  reading  of  some  children  in  a  grade  com- 
pare with  that  of  others  ?  Table  45  serves  to  indicate  the  varia- 
tions in  reading  achievement  for  the  children  in  each  grade. 
Comparatively  few  teachers  would  admit  offhand  that  such 
marked  variations  are  possible  within  a  grade.  Yet  the  table 
confronts  us  with  the  facts.  A  few  of  the  very  low  scores,  par- 
ticularly in  the  third  grade,  may  be  due  to  failure  to  under- 
stand what  was  wanted.  But  no  such  explanation  can  account 
for  the  fact  that  the  best  third  grade  readers  attained  a  score 
four  times  that  of  the  standard  median  for  their  grade.  In 
each  of  the  other  grades  there  are  children  whose  score  was 
nearly  three  times  that  of  the  standard  median  for  their  grade. 
A  considerable  proportion  of  each  grade  failed  to  attain  a  score 
half  as  large  as  the  expected  standard.  Moreover,  an  unusual 


112 


The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


proportion  in  each  elementary  grade  did  better  than  many  chil- 
dren in  grades  above.  More  than  one-fifth  of  the  children  in  the 
third  grade  read  better  than  the  poorer  half  of  the  fourth  grade. 
Similarly,  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  fourth  grade  surpassed  the 
poorer  half  of  the  fifth  grade.  More  than  a  third  of  the  sixth 
grade  excelled  the  lower  half  of  the  seventh  and  a  third  of  the 
seventh  grade  pupils  read  better  than  median  eighth  grade  chil- 

TABLE  45. — Distribution  of  Scores  in  Kansas  Silent  Reading  Test  For 

17  Cities 


Test  I 

Test  II 

Tes 

tin 

III 

IV 

v. 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

* 

XI 

XII 

0-      9 

193 

46 

5 

2 

4 

2 

1_19        

163 

42 

11 

2 

1 

2-29 

139 

61 

13 

5 

3 

2 

1 

3-39 

84 

54 

14 

13 

8 

6 

1 

1 

1 

4-49 

126 

71 

31 

18 

7 

1 

5-  6.9.  
789 

183 
125 

176 
187 

69 

118 

46 
115 

41 
67 

15 
37 

5 
5 

1 

9 

1 

9-10  9       

82 

158 

148 

121 

90 

44 

11 

2 

2 

1 

11-12  9     

56 

144 

174 

126 

114 

67 

17 

5 

6 

13-14  9     

45 

122 

218 

115 

110 

85 

14 

5 

5 

15-17  9 

29 

73 

201 

145 

182 

161 

37 

23 

11 

5 

18-20.9  

12 

47 

1«9 

144 

156 

164 

31 

17 

8 

10 

21-23.9  
24  26  9 

4 
1 

17 
4 

87 
21 

71 
44 

127 

89 

163 

96 

25 
34 

14 

18 

11 
16 

3 
14 

27  29  9  

4 

12 

24 

55 

55 

19 

10 

14 

6 

30-34  9 

2 

10 

31 

69 

93 

31 

31 

21 

13 

35-39  9 

4 

2 

11 

34 

10 

7 

4 

3 

40-44  9 

2 

2 

5 

8 

6 

12 

5 

45—49  9 

4 

2 

2 

50-59  9 

2 

2 

3 

5 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Above  80  

2 

1 

1 

1 

Total  
Median         ..     .. 

1,242 
4.3 

1,208 
8.6 

1,305 
13.6 

1,026 
14.1 

1,137 
17.1 

1,040 
19.8 

254 
21.4 

IbO 
24.7 

121 
26.9 

66 
26.4 

Standard 
Median          •  •  •  • 

5.3 

9.5 

13.2 

13.9 

16.2 

19.2 

22.7 

24.7 

26.1 

28.3 

dren.  Were  these  children  who  exceed  the  median  of  the  grade 
above  to  be  grouped  with  the  upper  half  of  the  higher  grade  for 
purposes  of  reading,  in  every  school,  there  is  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  better  reading  results  would  be  obtained  than  under 
present  conditions.  This  has  been  attempted  in  one  school  sys- 
tem to  the  writers  knowledge  with  satisfactory  results. 

It  would  seem  either  that  ability  to  read  plays  little  part  in 
determining  promotion,  or  that  teachers  differ  widely  in  the  de- 
gree of  reading  development  required  for  promotion.  Both 
factors  very  likely  help  to  account  for  the  extreme  variations 
in  the  reading  ability  of  pupils  nominally  in  the  same  grade. 


Reading  113 

Many  too,  fail  to  recognize  the  true  abilities  of  their  pupils. 
This  may  be  illustrated  from  an  inquiry  made  by  the  writer  re- 
garding one  of  the  two  eighth  grade  pupils  whose  score  on  the 
test  fell  between  50  and  59.9.  The  teacher  when  asked  how  she 
accounted  for  the  unusual  score  of  this  boy,  replied  that  he  was 
not  a  bright  boy  at  all.  But  upon  further  questioning  she  ad- 
mitted that  he  was  a  strong  pupil  in  all  work  requiring  thought. 
He  was  not  fluent  in  oral  reading  and  was  afflicted  somewhat 
with  ' '  bashf ulness ' '.  She  had  formed  her  estimate  upon  surface 
qualities  alone.  No  doubt  many  teachers  have  revised  their 
opinions  of  a  number  of  their  pupils  as  a  result  of  the  test.  The 
use  of  various  standard  tests  is  recommended  for  that  purpose. 
Regardless  of  whether  or  not  teachers  have  judged  the  ability 
of  their  pupils  accurately,  or  have  promoted  wisely,  the  condi- 
tion of  wide  differences  in  reading  ability  among  these  pupils 
is  an  actual  and  present  fact,  which  needs  to  be  taken  into  ac- 
count in  planning  work  for  them.  The  condition  which  Table 
45  reveals  is  particularly  serious  as  it  applies  to  the  eighth  grade. 
These  children  are  about  to  enter  high  school  very  unequally 
prepared  to  undertake  the  study  of  English  and  other  secondary 
school  subjects.  Definite  training  in  reading  in  the  high  school 
for  some,  will  be  perhaps  the  most  economical  means  of  meeting 
this  situation,  and  is  therefore  recommended.  Some  of  the  in- 
diviclual  differences,  shown  by  Table  45,  have  resulted  from  the 
teaching,  others  from  inequalities  in  the  native  endowments  of 
the  children.  Teachers  must  be  brought  to  see  that  equal  ef- 
forts on  their  part,  or  on  the  part  of  pupils  often  produce  very 
unequal  results.  Some  of  these  children  have  had  the  advan- 
tage of  better  teaching,  but  others  have  probably  acquired  greater 
facility  in  reading  with  no  greater  effort,  simply  because  they 
were  more  richly  endowed  by  nature.  In  order  that  no  mis- 
takes may  be  made  in  estimating  the  ability  of  the  individuals 
in  a  class  as  the  result  of  a  single  test,  other  standard  reading 
tests  should  be  applied.  A  composite  result  of  several  tests  will 
afford  a  much  more  satisfactory  diagnosis  of  individual  ability 
in  reading  than  a  single  test.  When  a  satisfactory  diagnosis 
of  the  reading  abilities  of  each  child  has  been  made  his  work 
should  be  planned  accordingly.  Children  of  somewhere  near 
equal  attainments  or  interests  may  be  grouped  together  tem- 
porarily. These  groups  may  be  flexible  and  readily  changed. 


114  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

Not- all  children  in  the  class  need  be  required  to  read  the  same 
material,  or  need  be  expected  to  progress  at  the  same  rate. 

What  elements  in  the  teaching  of  reading,  or  in  the  reading 
needs  of  children,  contribute  to  differences  in  their  reading  ac- 
quirements f 

Good  readers  will  be  found  to  differ  from  poor  readers  in 
knowledge  of  the  mechanics  of  reading.  As  a  result  of  insuffi- 
cient familiarity  with  the  mechanics,  the  poor  reader  spends 
much  of  his  time  in  puzzling  out  the  pronunciation  of  words. 
This  serves  to  distract  him  from  the  thought  of  what  he  reads. 
The  good  reader  proceeds  uninterrupted  and  is  able  to  retain 
what  he  reads  as  an  organized  whole,  and  to  reflect  upon  it. 

The  poor  reader  is  often  handicapped  by  a  lack  of  knowledge 
of  the  meanings  of  words.  Until  he  understands  their  meaning 
he  has  little  hope  of  getting  the  thought  of  what  he  reads.  Hence 
arises  the  need  for  selecting  different  reading  materials  for  each 
of  the  different  groups  of  the  class.  All  need  not  read  the  same 
stories  or  even  the  same  books.  Poor  readers  should  be  given 
material  within  the  range  of  their  comprehension,  introducing 
only  a  few  words  at  a  time  that  are  new  to  them.  It  is  poor 
economy  to  select  material  so  difficult  that  only  the  brightest 
can  enjoy  it. 

Pupils  differ  in  their  ability  to  grasp  the  thought  of  what  they 
read.  Gray  in  his  study  of  reading  in  the  St.  Louis  schools 
found  that  even  though  pupils  might  be  equally  proficient  in 
their  mastery  of  mechanics  they  might  differ  materially  in  their 
ability  to  master  the  thought.  Some  can  apparently  reflect  upon 
the  story  as  a  whole  while  others  can  deal  only  with  very  small 
parts  of  it.  Their  ability  to  organize  their  ideas  as  to  the  worth 
of  what  they  have  read  differs.  Wide  differences  will  be  found 
in  the  amounts  which  they  can  remember  of  what  is  read. 

A  marked  difference  will  be  found  in  the  rates  of  their  oral 
and  silent  reading.  This  fact  undoubtedly  accounts  in  part  for 
the  wide  variations  in  reading  scores  shown  in  Table  II.  Some 
pupils  acquire  habits  of  slow  reading  early  in  their  school  course 
and  remain  slow  readers  often  for  life.  Gray  in  his  study  of 
reading  in  the  St.  Louis  schools  found  that  in  some  classes  the 
rate  of  oral  reading  for  the  most  rapid  readers  was  more  than 
four  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  slowest.  The  writer  has  found 


Reading  .  115 

that  the  most  rapid  readers  in  a  class  seldom  read  less  than 
three  times  as  much  as  the  slowest  in  the  same  time. 

Finally  differences  in  interests  should  be  taken  into  account. 
Interesting  material  is  a  prerequisite  to  all  good  reading.  The 
type  of  story  that  is  most  appealing  to  boys  in  intermediate  and 
grammar  grades  is  often  quite  different  from  that  which  appeals 
to  girls.  This  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  among  libra- 
rians in  children's  departments  of  our  public  libraries.  To  be 
of  most  service,  reading  material  for  children  reared  in  foreign 
language  homes  should  involve  experiences  which  they  can  ap- 
preciate. 

Factors  in  teaching  which  account  for  differences  in  the  re- 
sults obtained  are  several.  Among  the  most  important  of  these 
is  the  attention  given  to  preparation.  Too  many  teachers  make 
little  preparation  for  the  day's  lesson.  They  trust  largely  to 
their  memory  for  the  story  of  the  lesson,  instead  of  preparing 
a  number  of  motivating  questions  which  will  require  pupils  to  do 
reflective  thinking  about  today's  lesson  or  that  will  help  them 
to  prepare  tomorrow's  lesson.  Too  frequently  their  questions 
are  of  the  trivial,  ''who  was  John?"  sort.  They  are  such  as 
occur  to  them  at  the  moment  and  lack  any  deep  seated  purpose. 
The  teacher  who  asked  her  children  how  they  would  paint  the 
story  in  today 's  lesson,  or  how  they  would  dramatize  it,  broached 
questions  that  required  her  pupils  to  do  reflective  thinking. 
Such  questions  not  only  supply  pupils  with  a  motive  but  require 
them  to  organize,  to  weigh  values,  to  exercise  judgment,  to  select 
essentials  from  nonessentials,  and  provide  them  with  opportun- 
ity for  the  exercise  of  initiative. 

A  second  important  factor  is  the  teachers  familiarity  with  the 
field  of  reading  material.  Too  often  teachers  are  unacquainted 
with  the  best  available  material  for  children.  Rarely  do  they 
have  anything  like  an  adequate  acquaintance  with  the  literature 
best  adapted  to  children  of  various  interests. 

Another  important  factor  sometimes  resulting  in  a  handicap 
to  children  is  the  teacher's  lack  of  facility  in  teaching  the  me- 
chanics of  reading.  She  is  unable  to  give  pupils  the  help  re- 
quired to  master  new  situations.  Poor  readers  frequently  are 
permitted  to  spend  undue  time  in  pondering  over  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  a  word.  The  result  is  that  less  time  is  left  for  reading. 
Pupils  can  often  be  made  more  independent  by  the  acquisition 


116  .       The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

of  a  few  simple  rules  or  by  being  taught  to  look  for  parts  of  a 
word  that  are  familiar. 

The  aims  in  primary  reading  established  by  a  school  are  a  mat- 
ter for  serious  consideration.  Many  teachers,  particularly  those 
enamored  by  certain  well  advertised  schemes  of  teaching  prim- 
ary reading,  insist  that  the  sole  purpose  is  to  develop  ability  to 
use  the  mechanics  of  reading.  Others  wisely  train  children  to 
get  the  thought  of  the  story  from  the  beginning,  as  well  as  to 
master  the  mechanics.  Gray  after  his  study  of  the  reading 
achievements  of  the  children  in  Cleveland,  Grand  Rapids  and 
St.  Louis  concludes :  ' '  It  is  evident  that  of  two  schools,  the  one 
which  masters  the  mechanics  as  it  is  developing  in  its  power  to 
interpret  the  printed  page  will  rank  superior  in  general  reading 
ability  to  the  school  which  masters  mechanics  alone."1 

If  good  reading  is  desired  it  is  important  that  pupils  spend 
the  reading  period  in  reading.  Easy  reading  is  much  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  material  that  makes  the  recitation  a  word  stumbling 
exercise.  Pupils  should  read  material  because  it  appeals  to  their 
imagination,  because  it  is  entertaining,  or  because  it  gives  them 
useful  information,  and  not  for  practice  in  mere  word  calling.  In 
one  of  the  schools  tested  the  writer  observed  a  third  grade  read- 
ing exercise  in  which  most  of  the  children  spent  more  time  in 
waiting  to  be  told  the  pronunciation  of  words  than  in  actual  read- 
ing. Approximately  one-third  of  the  recitation  period  had  been 
spent  in  acquiring  the  pronunciation  of  difficult  words.  This 
was  followed  by  oral  reading.  The  first  boy  called  upon  hesi- 
tated on  the  third  word  encountered.  The  class  pronounced  it 
for  him.  He  hesitated  again  after  reading  three  words  farther. 
He  continued  thus  until  he  had  finished  two  or  three  lines.  A 
second  pupil  did  much  the  same.  A  third  read  a  paragraph 
fluently  without  error.  A  fourth  and  a  fifth  read  much  as  the 
first  two.  Another  was  able  to  read  a  paragraph  without  help. 
Here  the  lesson  closed  without  a  comment  having  been  made  by 
the  teacher  or  pupils.  Four  additional  pages  were  assigned 
for  the  next  day's  lesson.  The  story,  that  of  "The  Meadow 
Mouse, ' '  would  have  been  interesting  to  children  more  advanced 
than  these.  As  it  was,  very  little  practice  in  reading  was  being 


1Gray:  Chapter  on  Reading  in  the  Survey  of  the  St.  Louis  Public  Schools, 


Reading  117 

given,  and  that  of  a  kind  not  designed  to  make  thoughtful 
readers. 

Much  of  the  material  which  children  are  called  upon  to  read 
lacks  vitalizing  interest.  It  is  of  a  kind  not  intended  to  result 
in  reflective  thinking.  Teachers  often  need  to  exercise  choice. 
Reading  texts  need  not  be  followed  slavishly.  Unappealing 
stories  need  to  be  omitted  or  made  appealing  by  the  teacher's  en- 
largement upon  them.  Unusually  good  stories,  not  in  the  read- 
ers in  use,  may  often  be  mimeographed  or  written  upon  the 
board. 

Few  teachers  seem  to  realize  that  a  reading  recitation  can  be 
conducted  in  any  other  way  than  as  an  oral  exercise  in  which 
each  pupil  reads  a  few  lines  in  turn.  More  practice  in  both  oral 
and  silent  reading  is  needed.  In  the  ordinary  class  a  pupil  has 
opportunity  to  read  once  during  the  recitation  period.  If  he  is  one 
out  of  a  class  of  twenty,  he  is  occupied  about  one-twentieth  of 
the  time  of  the  reading  period  in  oral  reading  practice.  What 
more  glaring  illustration  of  inefficiency  could  be  found  than  this  ? 
Such  procedure  not  only  affords  negligible  practice  in  oral 
reading  but  it  requires  a  pupil  to  listen  to  the  re-reading  of  ma- 
terial no  longer  of  interest  to  him.  In  addition  it  deprives  him 
of  valuable  time  that  could  otherwise  be  spent  in  silent  reading. 
Sectioning  the  class  into  small  groups  is  one  means  of  securing 
for  the  pupils  more  practice  in  oral  reading.  Another  method 
is  that  of  allowing  a  pupil  who  has  a  new  and  well  prepared 
story  to  read  it  to  the  class.  The  child  who  reads  to  his  class  in 
this  manner  has  a  motive  for  developing  good  expression  and 
his  classmates  have  a  motive  for  listening.  Some  class  periods 
should  be  spent  in  silent  reading.  To  center  attention  upon  the 
thought  of  what  is  read  the  teacher  may  at  times  prepare  well 
directed  questions  to  accompany  the  exercise. 

Facility  in  rapid  thought  getting  can  be  increased  by  the  fre- 
quent use  of  practice  exercises.  The  teacher  may  assign  a  new 
selection,  or  mimeographed  copies  of  selected  paragraphs  may  be 
distributed.  At  the  end  of  one  miniate,  or  some  other  definite 
period,  pupils  may  be  asked  to  write  answers  to  questions  which 
the  teacher  has  prepared,  or  they  may  be  asked  to  reproduce 
what  they  can  remember.  The  results  should  be  made  the  basis 
for  a  study  of  individual  needs. 


118  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 

Emphasis  upon  rapid  reading,  particularly  in  the  lower  grades 
should  be  insisted  upon  by  supervisors.  Many  of  the  low  scores 
that  were  made  in  the  test  are  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that 
pupils  have  been  permitted  from  the  beginning  to  choose  their 
own  rate.  As  the  result  the  habit  of  slow  reading  has  become 
strongly  fixed. 

Finally  the  need  of  definite  standards  in  reading  attainments 
should  be  mentioned.  Many  teachers  fail  to  develop  good  read- 
ers because  they  are  unaware  of  the  fact  that  their  pupils  have 
made  less  than  average  progress.  Not  only  should  definite  class 
standards  be  set  but  each  pupil  should  know  how  his  record 
compares  with  the  standard  for  the  class.  How  well  a  class 
reads  may  be  measured  by  applying  standard  reading  tests. 
Records  on  these  tests  should  be  kept  prominently  before  the 
class.  Subsequent  progress  may  be  determined  by  the  use  of 
tests  of  similar  design. 

SOME  SUGGESTED  REFERENCES 

Discussions  on  the  Measurement  of  Reading 

Brown,  H.  A.  The  Measurement  of  Efficiency  of  Instruction  in  Read- 
ing. Elementary  School  Teacher,  Vol.  XIV,  June  1914. 

Brown,  H.  A.  The  Measurement  of  Ability  to  Read.  Bureau  of  Re- 
search. Bulletin  No.  1.  New  Hampshire  Department  of  Public 
Instruction. 

Gray,  W.  S.  Methods  of  Testing  Reading.  Elementary  School  Journal, 
January  1916,  February  1916.  See  also  issues  of  November  and 
December  1916. 

Gray,  W.  S.  Studies  of  Elementary  School  Reading  Through  Standard- 
ized Tests.  Supplementary  Educational  Monograph  No.  1.  Chi- 
cago University  Press. 

Gray,  W.  S.     Reading.     Survey  of  the  St.  Louis  Public  Schools,  Vol.  II. 

Haggerty,  M.  E.  Scales  for  Reading  Vocabulary  of  Primary  Children. 
Elementary  School  Journal,  October  1916. 

Haggerty,  M.  E.  The  Ability  to  Read:  Its  Measurements  and  Some 
Factors  Conditioning  it.  Indiana  University  Studies  No.  34.  • 

Holmes,  H.  W.  and  Others.  Harvard  Bulletin  in  Education,  No.  5, 
June  1917.  Contains  bibliography  of  measurement  in  elementary 
school  subjects.  Harvard  University. 

Judd,  C.  H.  Measuring  the  Work  of  the  Schools.  Cleveland  Survey 
Reading,  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  N.  Y. 

Judd,  C.  H.  The  15th  Year  gook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study 
of  Education,  Fart  I,  Reading  1916. 

Kelley,  F.  J.  The  Kansas  Reading  Tests.  Journal  of  Educational 
Psychology,  February  1916. 

Kelley,  F.  !J.  The  Kansas  Silent  Reading  Test.  Kansas  State  Normal, 
Emporia,  Kansas.  Bulletin  No.  7,  Vol.  IV,  New  Series. 

Monroe,  W.  S.  A  Report  on  the  Use  of  the  Kansas  Silent  Reading 
Tests.  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  Dec.  1917. 


Reading  119 

National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  17th  Year  Book,  Part  II. 
Contains  a  good  bibliography  of  references  on  the  measurement 
of  reading  and  other  subjects.  Public  School  Publishing  Co., 
Bloomington,  Illinois. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  An  Improved  Scale  for  Measuring  Ability  in  Read- 
ing. Teachers  College  Record,  Nov.  1915,  Jan.  1916. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Measurement  of  Achievement  in  Reading:  Word 
Knowledge.  Teachers  College  Record,  Nov.  1916. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Reading  as  Reasoning:  A  Study  of  Mistakes  in 
Paragraph  Reading.  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  June 
1917. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  The  Understanding  of  Sentences:  A  Study  of  Errors 
in  Reading.  Elementary  School  Journal,  Oct.  1917. 

Uhl,  W.  L.  The  Use  of  Results  of  Reading  Tests  as  a  Basis  for  Plan- 
ning Remedial  Work.  Elementary  School  Journal,  Dec.  1916. 

Zirbes,  Laura.  Diagnostic  Measurement  as  a  Basis  for  Procedure. 
Elementary  School  Journal,  March  1918. 

See  also  various  school  survey  reports:  Cleveland,  Denver,  Grand 
Rapids,  Janesville,  Nassau  Co.,  N.  Y.,  San  Francisco. 

Selection  of  Reading  Material. 

Dana,  J.  C.  American  Library  Economy,  Course  of  Study  for  Normal 
School  Pupils  on  Literature  for  Children.  Elm  Tree  Press,  Wood- 
stock, Vermont. 

Gray,  W.  S.  A  Study  of  the  Emphasis  on  Various  Phases  of  Reading. 
Instruction  in  Two  Cities.  Elem.  Sch.  Jour.,  Nov.  1916. 

Kendall  and  Mirick.  How  to  Teach  the  Fundamental  Branches.  What 
to  Read.  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Munson  &  Hoskinson.  Library  and  Supplementary  Reading  Books 
Recommended  for  Use  in  Elementary  Schools.  16th  Tear  Book, 
National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education.  Public  School  Pub. 
Co.,  Bloomington,  111. 

Standard  Reading   Tests 

Brown's  Silent  Reading  Tests.  Pres.  H.  A.  Brown,  State  Normal 
School,  Oshkosh,  Wis. 

Fordyce's  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Achievements  in  Reading.  Univer- 
sity Publishing  Company,  Chicago. 

Gray's  Reading  Tests:  Silent  and  Oral.  Dean  W.  S.  Gray,  University 
of  Chicago. 

Haggerty's  Visual  Vocabulary  Tests.  For  Grades  I  and  II.  Bureau  of 
Coop.  Research,  University  of  Minnesota,  Minneapolis. 

Haggerty's  Reading  Test:  Understanding  of  Sentences.  Scale  Beta — a 
revision  of  Thorndike's  Scale  Alpha.  Bureau  of  Coop.  Research, 
University  of  Minnesota,  Minneapolis. 

Kansas  Silent  Reading  Tests,  Bureau  of  Educational  Measurements  and 
Standards,  Emporia,  Kansas. 

Monroe's  Standarized  Tests  in  Silent  Reading  (a  revision  of  the  Kan- 
sas Silent  Reading  Tests.)  Bureau  of  Educational  Measurements 
and  Standards,  Emporia,  Kansas. 

Starch's  Silent  Reading  Tests.  Daniel  Starch,  University  of  Wiscon- 
sin, Madison. 

Thorndike's  Improved  Scale  for  Measuring  the  Understanding  of 
Sentences:  Scale  Alpha  2.  Bureau  of  Publications,  Teachers  Col- 
lege, N.  Y. 

Thorndike's  Improved  Scale  for  Word  Knowledge  or  Visual  Vocabu-' 
lary:  Scale  A  2.  series  x  and  series  y;  Scale  B.  series  x  and  series 
y,  Bureau  of  Publications,  Teachers  College,  N.  Y. 


120  The  Use  of  Some  Standard  Tests 


Methods  of  Teaching  Reading 

Bobbitt,  F.  Report  of  the  School  Survey  of  Denver,  Part  II,  Reading 
Literature  and  Memory  Work.  School  Survey  Committee,  Denver. 

Briggs  and  Coffman.  Reading  in  the  Public  Schools.  Row,  Peterson 
Co. 

Coffman,  L.  D.  and  Frances  Jenkens.  Reading  in  Rapeer's  book, 
Teaching  Elementary  School  Subjects.  Scribners. 

Freeman,  F.  N.  The  Psychology  of  the  Common  Branches.  Reading. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  Co. 

Gray,  C..T.     Types  of  Reading  Ability.    University  of  Chicago  Press. 

Gray,  W.  S.  16th  Year  Book,  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Edu- 
cation. 

Gray,  W.  S.  Relation  of  Silent  Reading  to  Economy  in  Education. 
Public  School  Publishing  Co.,  Bloomington,  111. 

Gray,  W.  S.  The  St.  Louis  Survey.  Reading.  Board  of  Education, 
St.  Louis. 

'Gray,  W.  S.  The  Grand  Rapids  Survey,  Reading.  Board  of  Education, 
Grand  Rapids. 

Huey,  E.  B.  The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Reading.  MacMillan 
Company. 

Jenkens,  Frances.  Reading  in  the  Primary  Grades.  Houghton  Mif- 
flin Co. 

Judd,  C.  H.  fourth  Indiana  Conference  on  Educational  Measurements. 
Discussion  of  Reading.  School  of  Education,  University  of  In- 
diana (in  press). 

Judd,  C.  H.  Measuring  the  Work  of  the  Schools.  Reading.  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  N.  Y. 

Kendall  and  Mirick.  How  to  Teach  the  Fundamental  Subjects. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Klapper,  Paul.     Teaching  Children  to  Read.     Appleton  &  Co. 

Maple,  E.  0.  Teaching  Reading  in  Vincennes,  Indiana.  Elem.  Sch. 
Jour.,  Oct.  1917. 

Proceedings,  Indiana  State  Teachers  Meeting,  1916. 

Schmidt,  W.  A.  An  Experimental  Study  in  the  Psychology  of  Read- 
ing. Univ.  of  Chicago  Press. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Proceedings  of  a  Conference  on  Educational  Meas- 
urements. Indiana  Univ.  Bui.,  Vol.  XII,  No.  10. 

The  Psychology  of  Thinking  in  the  Case  of  Reading.  Phychological 
Rev.,  May  1917. 


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